For the past several months, students have been walking on a tightrope throughout Wilson Hall and even off campus. The administration has pushed a stricter regime with a record number of tardies, 46, surrounding one particular issue: attendance.
Since the inception of the more heavily enforced crackdown on attendance in September, students are met with seemingly constant reminders from teachers. An extensive list sent by the Dean of Students Mr. Kolade two weeks ago saw more than 20 Sixth Formers, among other underclassmen, sit silently in Ball Auditorium for an hour-long detention. Despite the drop of the hammer, this effort from the administration has seen opposite effects.
“It feels like it doesn’t matter as much,” Sixth Former Ronan Wood said. “It’s much harder to keep staying motivated, so I feel better being a bit late to class and going out on weeknights, something I’ve never done before.”
On Monday, February 13, 2023, more than half the Sixth Form observed their self-proclaimed “Senior Skip Day,” resulting in an all-too-familiar Ball Auditorium being met again with nearly 50 seventeen and eighteen-year-old Sixth Formers the following Wednesday. While “Senior Skip Day” may have been almost a month ago, lateness and even skip days have been more frequent for some Sixth Formers.
“As a school, however, we’ve had a number of detentions just in the past two months because kids aren’t showing up to class on time in the morning. Whether it is traffic or kids starting to cut some slack, I don’t know, but what I can say is that collectively we should be striving to be better,” Student Body President Luka Sekulić said.
Administration and student leaders insist on keeping up with current policies surrounding attendance, but some students have their own reasons.
“I’ve been late to classes first period throughout this semester several times, but most of them were excused due to health reasons. I fractured my wrist and injured my thumb,” Sixth Former Brian Kim said. “A lot of kids, especially seniors, have been skipping classes and etc., but I am pretty sure that they’ve got their own stuff going on.”
Students tackle their personal issues and many call for others to take notice and more consideration regarding attendance-related consequences. While leniency can be granted, the extreme cases of the attendance spectrum are inexcusable.
I would prefer if we gave detentions for every lateness after the third offense.
Mr. brian long
“When people skip a class, days on end, it starts to go noticed,” Sekulić said, “There are a few people within the Sixth Form class that have missed a great amount of school and the class is talking about it. Whether I’m in a community space or in a class, some of these students will be brought up and people are oftentimes concerned about these cases.”
Wood echoed that sentiment.
“There is a man in my English and Computer Science class that will just not show up for days on end, and it doesn’t affect others too much; it kinda gets the idea in other people’s minds, however, showing what not to do, because he is at risk of losing credit,” Wood said.
A formally unheard-of rule enforced by the administration, the “15% attendance rule” has become increasingly more recognized. In order to not lose credit for a course, students must not miss more than 15% of the class for that course. No one knows for sure the future of this handful of extreme cases, but students and faculty recognize the problem.
The debate among the Sixth Form has trickled down to the underclassmen, who also realize the growing severity of absences.
“I had known that the senior class has been skipping classes, but I did not know that my fellow sophomores had been having issues with attendance as well,” Fourth Former Phineas Manogue said. “If it is true, then I think that it is a really bad sign of what is to come as the Class of 2025 gets closer to senior year, and possible burnout becomes more substantial.”
Although students ask for more understanding for being late and not being in class, some faculty members think otherwise.
“I think our attendance policy is too lenient. I would prefer if we gave detentions for every lateness after the third offense,” history teacher Mr. Brian Long said. “Attendance—both tardiness and absences—is an area of growth for our students.”
Certain faculty members and student perspectives continue to be at odds as attendance becomes a prevalent topic of discourse.
“I think the administration is doing a terrible job with how they handle attendance. Although a lot of the tardiness is due to the student’s lack of time awareness and management, I think that it is the administration’s responsibility to carefully listen to the students and help solve their issues so that they can improve from their bad habits,” Kim said.
Adopting a growth mindset and faculty members attending to student concerns may be the key to solving this problem.
“I truly believe that a school’s job as an educational institution is to manage students to improve and become the best version of themselves, by directly helping them instead of just punishing them,” Kim said. “They should individually listen to why a student is late and discuss with the student a reasonable way to improve that together. Punishment and consequences should be the last method to deal with an issue.”
Certain biases may influence teachers’ decisions on penalizing students but coming to a consensus with students can help.
“I think that there sometimes is more bias from teachers when it is obvious that certain students tend to struggle with being late; however, I think that it makes sense, as it can be a struggle for some students to find ways to get to school and a lot of things are out of their control. If the teachers know this, then I think that it is totally fair for them to give more leniency to those students,” Manogue said.
“While some teachers can be harsh at times, a lot of the teachers at Haverford understand what it means to be a second-semester senior and understand that we have earned some slack.”
Luka sekulic ’23
With the last two to three months of the school year, reflecting and appreciating the time left can help students, specifically Sixth Formers, enjoy learning more.
“Being in the second semester, one of the leading reasons why I show up on time and try to miss as [little class time] as possible is because of the classes I’m taking,” Sekulić said. “I set up my schedule so that most of the classes that I’m really interested in are in the second semester. My international relations class with Mr. Hart, which I’m planning to major in college, has been pushing me to check my calendar and do my homework at night, and my environmental science class with Dr. Goduti, has turned into a hobby.”
Amid tensions between administration and students, both parties can learn to find a middle ground surrounding attendance and timeliness.
“While some teachers can be harsh at times, a lot of the teachers at Haverford understand what it means to be a second-semester senior and understand that we have earned some slack,” Sekulić said. “A lot of the teachers are very flexible, and we just have to make sure we’re not abusing this privilege.”
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