Lunch give back might be effective now but it might not be as strong in the long run.
Junior Michelle Cruz was a long time tardy student but after the new tardy policy she said she has been showing up on time.
“I don’t want to spend my lunch in a room doing nothing when I’d rather be eating,” Michelle said.
The first two weeks of the new tardy policy, which requires students who are late to first or fourth period to spend the first 15 minutes of lunch in the gym, resulted in a “huge, dramatic drop,” in tardies, Assistant Principal Kuoching Ngu said.
On the second week of school, Monday started off with twenty eight tardies and dropped to seventeen on Tuesday and kept dropping until Thursday when it rose to twenty five.
“Results are very promising most students go to lunch give back. Kids don’t want to be sent home,” Animo Pat Brown principal Joshua Hartford said.
Last week, the numbers increased from twenty seven tardies on Monday to forty three tardies on Thursday and a total of seven students sent home for not attending lunch give back.
The third week of school, 137 students were tardy, 11 were sent home.
Mr.Ngu is “surprised” that lunch give back is a success in comparison to last year’s tardy policy.
While the results may be “promising” students are calling lunch give back another form of detention.
“It’s not detention, it makes sure tardies won’t happen again.” Hartford said.
Because failing to show up to lunch give back would send the student home, students have begun to feel like they shouldn’t go to school at all.
“I already know some lunch is going to be taken, so i don’t want to go to school because I know I’m going to be punished,” Michelle said.
Because she doesn’t approve of going home for failing to show up to lunch give back, Michelle said she attends lunch give back when its assigned.
Junior Jonathan Aguilar said, “i wake up late on purpose because i don’t want to come to school.”
Many students now purposely take their time in the mornings or don’t even feel like showing up to school when they know they are tardy but either way they attend lunch give back.
Although Jonathan does not agree with lunch give back he still attends because he is “afraid” of the consequences.
