By: Haley Moss

You walk into class, PCTV just ended and your anchors just shared the lunch menu for the day. Then you get the real excitement: the look from your first period teacher. Your first period teacher says, “You arrived at 8:15, right? No problem. Attendance was already sent in. Go to the office to get a pass. You were already marked late.” Mentally, you’re ready to slam your head on your desk, but in reality, it’s time to go to the Upper School Office to go get a late pass. Welcome to first period under the newly enforced late policy.

Teachers now actually have to send in their attendance at the beginning of first period, instead of waiting for the stragglers who waited until the millisecond PCTV ended to waltz in and make an entrance. This is also in effect with your other classes, but without the tardy passes. You’ll just be marked late without having to make a scene at the Upper School Office these days. How fun is that?

My real question right now is, can you imagine the new line at the office now first thing in the morning? It’s no longer a report to your teacher of traffic on I-95, oversleeping, the dog eating your homework, or your laptop malfunctioning; it’s a visit to the office. Maybe the line will begin to look like those during Black Friday, although this one probably won’t make the national morning news.

So what’s this attendance policy going to do to us now? Make us run for the hills at 8:00am before first bell if we hang in the library and our first period is in ICI? Keep us blaming I-95 for being congested? Force us to say our alarm clocks are faulty? You tell me what’s next on the excuse list to hide the embarrassment of arriving a little over 30 seconds after PCTV ends.