All of us students are fed up with having to report to homeroom and the consequences we face when we’re tardy.

We feel that there needs to be a change to this policy because it’s getting out of hand.

According to the Mayfield student handbook, “In order to actively promote a sense of timeliness, responsibility, and protect instructional time Mayfield High School will implement the following procedures for students who fail to arrive to class in a timely manner.”

Consequences for being late three, six, nine, and 12 times are then listed in the handbook.

But what’s the problem here? I’ll tell you. There are several circumstances where a student isn’t at fault for their tardiness.

For example, what about students who drive themselves to school? Junior Shamar Bailey had start-up issues with his car last year.

“My car would take like 10 minutes to start each morning and I wasn’t able to get it fixed until the weekend. I didn’t get to school until about 7:30 each morning for that week. I had to take my bookbag to my locker and grab my things, so I was never on time to homeroom,” Bailey said.

Bailey said he got a detention, and he tried to get out of it but couldn’t. He said, “The whole thing was just really frustrating because it wasn’t my fault I was late for that week.”

Junior Erica Coleman has also experienced the unfairness of this rule. “I have to walk to school a majority of the time and sometimes I run late. It takes me time to walk from where I live to the high school. I can’t help that my mom is a nurse and has many shifts, which means she can’t take me to school. I don’t think it’s right for students to be punished for things that they can’t control,” said Coleman.

Coleman and Bailey, along with other students, could benefit from homeroom being eliminated.

The main point for homeroom at Mayfield is for teachers to take attendance, pass out papers, and for students to listen to announcements. Many students believe that there is still a way to do both of those things without having a homeroom. Sophomore Chris Foell sees how this could work as he said, “Teachers can easily take attendance at the start of first period, pass out anything a student might need, and students can listen to announcements during the five minute passing time to first period,” Foell said.

This could also benefit me, as I just had a detention on Tuesday for excessive tardies. I wake up at 6:30 every day and don’t even have time to eat breakfast before my ride arrives at 7:10. When I get to school I put my stuff away at my locker, to then make a three-minute walk to my homeroom, when my first period class is right across from my locker.

How ridiculous is that?

Senior Giani Corrao also wants to terminate homeroom. “I think that maybe it would be easier on students if they had to be to first period on time, but not be forced to go to homeroom. The extra 15 minutes students could have can be really beneficial,” Corrao said.

Corrao also thinks that removing homeroom could give students a better view of how reality will be when you graduate. “When you have a real job someday, there’s going to be a set time you need to be there. There isn’t going to be a warning bell that tells you [that] you only have five more minutes to get to work because you’ll have to be on time. I think that if everyone had to be at school in time for their first period, there would be a lot less tardies,” said Corrao.

With a vast amount of students complaining about the same thing, maybe Mayfield principals need to reconsider the policies that are put in place. We together need to encourage the administrators to make a change!