Beginning Monday March 14, the Northwood administration enforced a list of rules centralized around tardies. The rules included a temporary suspension of Plus One clubs, a sweeping of students who are late to Plus One, bathroom rules and a stricter adherence to punishments for tardies.
In an email sent out March 11, Vice Principal Adam Lutterloh outlined the rules that Northwood staff will implement. The insinuation that these are brand new rules is not entirely the case.
“A lot of those are not new rules, they’re just a revisiting of things that have always been in place,” Assistant Principal Wynne Youngblood said. “We found that they weren’t being enforced–whether it was just by teachers or if it was by students. We found that there was a significant issue with tardies as it related to plus one and to other classes. So one of the ways that we were helping to address this is to go back and revisit, remind you guys of what the expectations are and say, ‘Okay, these are going to be our consequences.’ So that was really kind of the reason that we went back was to help with the tardy policy and getting everybody in place so that way we can get into the business of education, which is what we’re here for.”
Students can also expect there to be consequences with unexcused tardies if they haven’t already experienced serious repercussions.
“So the consequences that students can expect for the tardies are exactly as it always has been,” Youngblood said.
“When we talk about tardies, numbers one, two and three are warnings from your teacher, and then tardies four and five carry with them a lunch detention–and then six and over, that’s a full day of in school suspension, that’s where you guys get to come visit with us.”
A new consequence of running late to Plus One this year is something called sweeping. Students found in the halls after the bell rings are ushered into the auditorium by teachers or administrators for the remainder of Plus One.
“So really honestly what happens when you get into the auditorium, which is where students go when they get swept, we have a spreadsheet that we are keeping track [of], and that’s how Mr. Lutterloh and I keep attendance,” Youngblood said. “You have to hang out there with us, which is kind of the consequence, because who wants to hang out with an administrator for the day?”
Some seniors who have been swept shared their experience.
“I was literally opening the door to the weight room and then the bell rang and then Mr. Lutterloh and four other teachers were out there and they were just like, ‘You have to come to the auditorium,’ and then I just sat in there on my phone and did nothing for thirty minutes,” senior Gene Gibson said. “I was pretty beat, like I kinda had other stuff I wanted to do… [Mr. Lutterloh] called us up and explained to us about tardies and stuff like that…and after you get six tardies you get ISS, and he went over the rules and that’s it.”
“ I didn’t know what was going on, someone said to go to the auditorium, so I did,” senior Mark Mazanec said. “It was a dark room, I sat there and I enjoyed myself. There’s nothing else. They took my name. I was going to my plus one and I went to the bathroom, I took too long in the bathroom to come back and on the way back I was swept.”
