On Oct. 3, I learned South High was conducting a tardy sweep right as the bell rang. I found myself in the middle of the hallway, and Principal Angie Pappas-Muyco was telling me to report to the commons. My English teacher wouldn’t let me in, and that’s how I got detention. 

Even before this, though, I didn’t agree with the tardy sweep system that was implemented last year. Personally, I think the system is unfair. 

A lot of people around me such as friends and others have come to the conclusion that tardy sweeps are meant to catch kids who are skipping class. That’s great, because sometimes I think kids who are skipping class need a tiny push. However, I still don’t think it’s fair because many of the kids who get caught in these tardy sweeps are not intentionally trying to be late. 

On my way down, I walked by this girl who I didn’t really know but was in kind of the same boat as me. I talked to her, and she said she was trying her best to get to her class from the counseling loft, and that her counselor didn’t go through the effort to make sure her teacher knew where she was.

Personally, for me, that’s the problem with the tardy system— it just doesn’t catch the right people. It’s more inconvenient than it is helpful.

Also, when you go down to the commons and it finally is your turn, the administration sitting down at the tables you have to go up to doesn’t give you much of a chance to explain yourself. They gave me a one-hour detention for trying to use the bathroom before class, and currently I am writing this article from the detention room. 

The longer I sit here in this uncomfortable room that smells like spoiled food and is warm in the wrong way, the more it feels like a waste of time. I don’t think anyone here did anything to warrant staying after school specifically for one hour, and I really don’t think the kids that did do something the school would say is bad will “learn their lesson” like the school wants them to. 

On my way here, I was told by a teacher that they moved the room due to there being so many students who received detention. This raises the question: Did even the majority of students do anything wrong? The sheer amount of students getting assigned punishments are another reason why I think they’re catching the wrong people. People who intentionally skip class will find a way to avoid detention, and now the majority of the people taking their punishment for them are probably like me, people who didn’t do anything wrong. 

Although the administrators operating the tardy sweeps ask why you’re not in class, from my experience it doesn’t seem to affect the detention they dish out to you. For example, the girl who was on her way back from the counseling loft still got detention, and I did too. Neither of us meant any harm but still got detention, which is certainly unfair, especially because people like us aren’t the problem the school is trying to solve. 

I’m going to be honest, I get in trouble for homework all the time. When I think about it, having my phone and computer taken doesn’t really teach me a lesson. I keep getting in trouble over and over again for the same things, and yet I keep doing them because my motivation to do homework is not because I’m scared of being grounded, it’s because I want to do well in school. The same thinking can be applied to the tardy sweep— detentions will not motivate kids to stop skipping class.

Every kid who is intentionally late has their own reason: maybe they’re having a bad day, maybe they’ve chosen to stay behind to help a friend out, or maybe they are doing something bad. Maybe they are vaping in the bathrooms (which everyone knows happens by the way). No matter what the reason, ultimately it’s up to the individual whether or not they continue to stay out in the hallways past the bell. Tardy sweeps are not the push that will make people choose to be in class on time. 

Ultimately, all the tardy sweep system does is just an attempt to give kids a reason to get to class on time. From what I understand, the purpose is to create a consequence for being late that the students at this school will be scared of enough to get them to walk a little faster in the hallways, to not stop to talk to their friends, and to not waste time. This idea sounds like it would work, but not every person cares enough about the consequences. Being late by a minute or two is worth it for whatever they are doing in the hallways, and that’s where the idea behind the system falls apart. Sure, you might have to stay an hour after school, but no one’s really thinking about that. I’m not saying the administration should make the consequence(s) worse, that would just make everyone extremely unhappy, I’m just saying that something else might be better. 

There are a bunch of problems with the tardy system that could easily be fixed: for one, they should be more lenient. People who have an honest reason for being out in the halls shouldn’t get detention. Obviously, there may have to be some proof to make sure they’re telling the truth, but it could be done. Other than that, I think the administrators could try to collect more data on why they have these problems they’re trying to solve, and maybe try to find a different solution instead of tardy sweeps, because they really don’t seem to be that effective. 

Overall, tardy sweeps are largely ineffective with the system that is in place. It should either be improved or replaced with something that’ll cater more to the targeted groups and problems.