When you enter the office, there it sits. Watching you, it’s marking a tally next to your name each time you step foot through the threshold of a classroom post-bell.
For the 2011-2012 school year, there is a new Big Brother in town, and its name is the Tardy Tracker. Lurking in the office, the Tardy Tracker is taking students to detention and beyond.
Of all the flaws behind the Tardy Tracker system, one stands out like a sore thumb. Even if you were enduring an illness or had no choice but to stop for gas in order to make it to school, the Tardy Tracker is heartless. A machine won’t be easily swayed by your story of how your alarm has it out for you and decided to simply not go off.
Day in and day out, being late is a plague among many high school students. Tardiness wanders throughout the halls, latching on to any student who dares to test the clock.
While I am prone to being late to only first hour, many others endure tardiness throughout the day. Most unintentional, might I add. Rushing from hall to hall and to your locker within the designated six-minute time frame isn’t always possible, whether you yapped with your pals or not.
While teachers have made it more than obvious that the Tardy Tracker is any teacher’s dream, it is simply an electronic nightmare to many students. When arriving to a class late, you receive little more than a point in the Tardy Tracker’s direction, leaving students to take the ‘walk of shame’ to the front office.
When adding together the walk to and from the office, the already present tardiness, as well as the wait to scan your card, the Tardy Tracker takes more time than it saves.
While students walking into class late is rather frustrating to begin with, forcing them to leave and return with a ruckus for a second time seems like an unnecessary distraction to both the students and teacher.
Although the Tardy Tracker may be equipped with a perk or two, the system still leaves a lot to be desired. With the threat of ISS surrounding students, tardiness has been taken to a whole new level.
Electronics are taking over our society, and the Tardy Tracker is taking over our school. No matter how well-constructed of an excuse you have prepared, the Tardy Tracker is taking no prisoners.
