By ESTHER CONAWAY – News Writer
At the start of the new semester, administrators at Clarke Central High School made changes to policies regarding tardiness, skipping and hall passes.
At the start of the 2013 – 14 school year, a new seven-period schedule was implemented at Clarke Central High School. With the new schedule came confusion, and, according to teachers and administrators, more students missing class time.
“The hallways last term had more people and more activity in them during class than I’ve seen in any other year, and I’ve been here for ten years,” social studies department teacher Drew Wheeler said.
Before school was released for Christmas break on Dec. 20, a committee of administrators, teachers and other staff members met to discuss the problem.
“Too much instructional time being missed by too many kids caused us to step back and reflect and try and decide what we could do,” assistant principal Mary Thielman said.
The committee decided to make adjustments on the tardy, skipping and hall pass policies. The new policies were put into effect on Jan. 7, at the start of the new semester.
If a student skips GLAD Time once, he/she will be assigned to detention during GLAD Time. Two or three times will result in four GLAD Time detention sessions. If a student skips GLAD Time more than three times, the student may be subject to suspension or expulsion. The number of tardies allowed before punishment was also decreased.
Teachers claim to already see a difference.
“The quantity of kids in the restrooms and hallways is down dramatically,” science department teacher Claude Gonzalez said.
While teachers are accepting of the punishments for skipping, many students disagree with the policies.
“There should at least be a warning for skipping,” freshman Isobel Crain said.
The number of tardies allowed before a student is punished have also decreased.
“It used to be ten tardies before you got a phone call, now it’s down to five. It used to be twenty tardies before you get after school detention, now it’s down to ten,” security officer Rodney Robinson said.
In addition to the policies, new hall passes were created and distributed to teachers and administrators. Each teacher was given a limited amount of passes at the beginning of the new semester, they will be allowed to give out. The hall passes are printed on red paper and are specific to each teacher’s name.
“The idea with the hall passes is that they make the teachers more cautious of how many passes they’re actually writing,” assistant principal Reginald Thomas said.
Despite the good intentions of the passes, there is disgruntlement among teachers and students about them. Senior Mohamad Burjak does not agree with the hall passes.
“If a person needs to go somewhere or do something, let them do it. I’m sure there’s a bit of a problem with students being out in the hall, but that doesn’t mean you have to punish everybody out in the hallway because they don’t have some red pass,” Burjak said.
Though teachers are not completely in favor of the passes, they do recognize the benefits.
“The hall passes are kind of annoying, because I have to fill out more out on it than the agendas, but I’ve had less people ask for passes. They seem to be asking more when they really need to go,” Wheeler said.
Still, some teachers have not followed directions for the hall passes, according to english department teacher Erin Cawthon said.
“Since we were given our red passes, I’ve still had students come to me from other teachers with passes written on sticky notes and other sheets of paper,” Cawthon said.
Administrators, however, believe in the potential of the new policies.
“I think as long as teachers, administrators and security are consistent, the policies will be effective,” Dunham said.
Despite doubts about the policies, principal Robbie P. Hooker is determined to follow through.
“I’ve heard rumours that the policies will last for a month and then we will bypass it, but I’m in it to win it,” principal Robbie P. Hooker said.
