Inconsistent consequences for tardies fall short of written CHS policy

Published March 6, 2025

BY NICOLE MIRSKI

Carmel High School students are told that being tardy an excessive number of times will lead to consequences, from a letter home to after-school detention, but in actuality, the ramifications vary from those written in the CHS handbook.

The handbook states that after a student’s first tardy in a specific class period, the teacher will confer with that student; after the second tardy, the parents may be contacted; after the third, the parents will receive a mailed letter; and after the fourth, one hour of after school detention will be assigned.

“Regular attendance plays a key role in the success of each student,” states this year’s handbook, which also lays out the consequences for tardies.

However, some students say these consequences aren’t deterrents or even being enforced.

In a survey of 100 students from all grade levels, 52 reported they had four or more tardies in a singular class during the span of the fall semester. Of those students, 21% say they never got assigned detention by the CHS administration and 44% claim to have never actually attended the 60-minute detention.

CHS assistant principal Ernesto Pacleb, whose duties include enforcing attendance, says that students have the responsibility of showing up to class and managing their own time.

“I would ask the students to reflect on themselves,” says Pacleb. “I appreciate those who come in [for detention] and really hold themselves accountable because they’re setting up life lessons for themselves…. I also believe in karma.”

Based on data from the first semester, the total number of tardies for all students for the 2024-25 school year is on track to be more than 7,200.

In addition to the 60-minute after-school detentions, Pacleb says students who have over four tardies may be discussed during student attendance review team meetings, utilized between the administration, attendance teams and families. These meetings are scheduled when the administration and attendance secretaries decide that a student has been tardy too often to the extent it harms their learning.

Some students who have 30 to 40 tardies in a single class period say their lateness is reinforced by the school’s lack of action. One CHS senior reports having large number of tardies starting her sophomore year, leading to 42 the second semester of her junior year, 30 of which came from her first period. This should have led to around 26 detentions–each tardy after the fourth should lead to an additional hour of scheduled detention–but she faced nothing.

“I had absolutely no consequences whatsoever,” says the senior, who prefers to remain anonymous. “At some point I did get a slip to go to detention because of tardies, and I got about five of those, but I threw each and every one in the trash can. I think after the sixth one, the attendance office just stopped trying.”

A number of students express that while they have more than the required tardies to get a detention, they were either not notified or simply ignored the summons. Another CHS senior claims to have had six tardies in a singular class last semester but never had gotten a detention slip. A sophomore has a similar story. He had six tardies in his first period, yet he never received any disciplinary action. A CHS junior had at least 10 tardies in her first period class last semester, and while she was informed, she simply ignored the detention and faced little follow-up.

“I was told that I would need to attend detention and was sent a reminder,” says another junior with an estimated eight tardies in a class during the first semester. “When I never showed up [to detention], there was no consequence or attempt to follow up.”

Some teachers have also gotten frustrated with the number of students coming in late regularly. Nora Ward, who teaches Advanced Placement Psychology and Government and Economics, says that she has locked the door at the start of first period for only a couple minutes and had students wait before coming in. Since she also plays a video at the start of every class, if a student misses any part of it, the entire video is assigned as homework.

However, when CHS’ current system of consequences is enforced, it does work for some, as the fear of detention is enough of a deterrent from coming in late to class. Many students express that they try to keep their tardies in check after receiving these warnings. For senior Roy Reneker, this was the case after he came into his second period late three times.

“I got the slip saying one more [tardy] was a detention, so I didn’t show up late again,” says Reneker.

The attendance staff and administration’s goal is to get students to attend class on time, but with a lack of strict consequences, that has proven to be more difficult than expected.

“We do have our spreadsheets, and we will try to follow it and track kids in case they’re gone,” says Pacleb. “In some cases, they may have switched schools so we didn’t catch them or maybe it happened prior to a break and we came back and there was a shuffle. There’s always little things, but we try to do our due diligence and communicate.”