Throughout the days, as a new paper overflowing with names is placed somewhere in the school entrance, one can’t help but wonder why the detentions grow astronomically? Even though students thought the tardy system supported during the entirety of the first semester was set in stone, new, unannounced changes were made for the rest of the year,  and students and directives alike feel overwhelmed. Which begs the question: what is the benefit of such a choppy, turbulent system  that even the school fails to follow?

For instance, as member of the first Wednesday after school detention, Isabel Arias, blamed her punishment on the lack of organization by the directives. “Out of all the students that were with me  that day at the office there was not one that was aware of all their tardies,” stated Arias. Additionally, she was enraged that there was no proof shown that she had indeed been as tardies as they had claimed. “ [The secretary] showed me in the computer a list  in Word with my name on it,” Arias explained. “They just showed me that, apparently, my name was in it. I don’t want to be rude, but if it wasn’t printed at that time, how could do we know.” One of the main resons the number of students increases vastly each day is the changed policy. Instead of publicly announcing the installment of a better system, the directives chose another one silently, without even notifying  the students. The previous paper policy thrived on the basis of daily notification, as this one fails from silent anotation. Plus, Isabel does make a good point, where is the proof? Wouldn’t it be nice that they would specifically show you when and where you were tardy, instead of forcing you to  blindly  belief a list that could have been typed barely minutes ago your alleged detention?

However, vice-principal Vicky Jaramillo claims that the new system is better than ever, by stating, “The window and the poster are consistent.” She also explained why the old policy was altered, by saying that,  “What happened with the papers occurred because the secretary did not have enough time to make them every day, so students received the message that they did not have tardies, and, they were right because no one gave them the paper.. without consistency it does not work.”

Although, high school junior Amalia Triana agrees with Isabel Arias and disagrees with Vicky, as she has no problem with detention, but rather  the fact that she simply does not get notified. “The thing is that sometimes, only in lunch, I don´t stay because I just simply do not know or don’t get noticed, because the papers that they put in front of the office are sometimes not up to date or hidden basically, “ said Triana. “It’s not the students in a will to act rebellious against authority, but a problem of communication”.

Unannounced drastic alterations made from day to night and the overall inconsistency and chaos only worsens the problem. At this point confusion is the only constant in the system. The numbers prove the previous policy excelled at it job, then ,why randomlly change it to one that no one can back up? Therefore, if the school can’t keep up with their own tardy policy, how are the students supposed to?