A new principal has come to school, as well as a variety of other faculty and staff members of power. With this has come a new rule that is completely unrealistic and unfair towards students of all grade levels.
What is the 10 Day Policy? The 10 Day Policy is a policy where students are only allowed to miss 10 class periods per semester. Each class has 10 allowed absences, and once those 10 absences are reached, credits can start to be pulled from the class, making students ineligible to receive full credit. This rule has never been implemented in any of the previous years that I’ve been at the school, and I think that’s because the faculty realized how ignorant the rule was. However, this year there is new faculty and with that comes the lack of knowledge on student expectations.
There can be many different ways that students miss school or are unable to attend class, and the only thing that is covered under this rule is a positive covid test and a family emergency/death. When it comes to high school and academics, grades are extremely important, and students are aware of that when jumping into this chapter of their life. School is stressful as is, and missing school always adds to the plate. With this newly inefficient and problematic rule, it is now doubling the stress and issues that students face daily.
When students aren’t feeling well or are simply having an off-day, school is the last place they want to be, and now they are essentially required to go regardless of issues or sickness (besides covid). It shows a lack of empathy and care for students who are unwilling to go to school, and even adds similarities to a prison. I’m not sure how this rule is supposed to help or improve the campus or student productivity, but I feel that all it does is way down and upset students even more. When I first heard of the rule, it made me instantly have a negative feeling towards the new staff. I feel, as new members of an unfamiliar school, the last thing that should be done is upsetting students.
There is now a pressure of counting which days are worth missing and whether or not a person can hang-in throughout the treacherous days of school. A simple alternative could be to provide a warning or some sort of ‘talk’ at 10 days, and have the consequences continue to increase from there.
This policy is an utter embarrassment for the district and is seen by many of the students and parents as unethical. I feel like much more efficient policies could have been put into place with the start of a new school year.