Tardiness Too Is a Problem in the Schools
Re “The Price of Hooky,” editorial, July 27:
As a first-year teacher in a Los Angeles Unified School District high school, not just hooky but tardiness was an epidemic problem.
Administrators tell you that you cannot link attendance to grades. Attendance problems may be addressed in the citizenship section of students’ grades, which is virtually meaningless to students.
But when a student aces all of his or her tests and registers 22 absences and 37 tardies by the semester break, is the student really entitled to that A?
My Period 1 class of seniors averaged 12 to 15 of 40 students tardy regularly, and four students who usually came in 15 minutes late and who were marked absent.
When that happens, my ability to plan creative class activities is impeded. Unfortunately, this is not seen as problematic. The school gets the money because attendance is taken during homeroom, which follows first period, thus demeaning first period.
Russell Stern
Redondo Beach
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