Tardies have been an issue at Galileo for many years. The school has tried many different ways to try and fix it, including hallway sweeps, sending out truancy letters and calling parents, but nothing has made a large enough impact to stop this issue. This year Galileo has come up with a new plan that they believe will work to stop tardies: spring break school for students with over 30 tardies since the beginning of the school year.
After the school staff started complaining about how students continue to come late to class, even with the teachers talking to them about their grades, Galileo’s Interim principal Mr. Panjabi realized that the school had failed with their current punishments and decided they needed to take more drastic measures to fix the problem.
“I honestly feel like I have tried everything but nothing is working. I am very disappointed in those students because I know they can do better but they are just choosing not to. I feel like in order for them to listen to their teachers and not be late anymore they are going to need a much stronger punishment,” said Mr. Panjabi.
When teachers mentioned grades it struck an idea in Mr. Panjabi’s brain. He realized if the students were to see that their tradies would actually affect their grades they would know to not be late anymore. Finally he came up with the idea, “The Week of Truancy”.
In “The Week of Truancy” students will attend the classes they were tardy to until they recover all minutes that were lost. If this time is not recovered within the spring break students will lose credits off of their record. Each tardy will make students lose 0.2 credits off of your record.
Mr. Ayala who enjoys the idea of this new concept said, “This is a very good way to teach students a lesson that is needed. Students need to be able to take responsibility for their actions and if that includes me being here as well to encourage students to do a better job then I am fine with that.”
Some teachers though are not in favor of this new concept. English teacher Ms.Dave said, “I look forward to my spring break. I have planned a trip to go on with my family and now I can no longer go due to my students thinking it’s okay to be tardy. I understand our tardy problem is an issue but I wish we could have done something else. I’m highly disappointed in these students. They not only ruined our spring break but there’s as well.”
An anonymous student, who has to attend “The Week of Truancy”, had a lot of complaints about the new policy. He said, “This is so unfair, it’s outrageous! How can they do this to us? This should be illegal. I understand I have tardies but grades are all passing. I also had plans this spring break, I bought plane tickets and everything and now I can’t even go. This is absolutely unacceptable.”
Another anonymous student, added, “I’m just confused on why all of sudden they care about tardies so much, this has been happening for a while so why now? My tardies are my problem, the school needs to mind its own business.”
