The students of Panther Creek were taken by surprise on September 25 with a tardy sweep. As soon as the bell for second period rang, teachers locked the doors to their rooms, and all students lingering in the hallways and outside of their classrooms were sent to the commons.

This event was part of an effort by the PC staff to crack down on the significant number of tardies from both this school year and last. Many students were caught in the sweep and missed an entire class period due to how long the situation took to sort out in the commons, which became an issue in itself.

 “If a student is tardy they should not have to miss a whole educational lesson.” sophomore Chloe Fisher said. “I understand detention if you’re really trying to crack down on tardies… but I don’t understand taking them out of class because it really puts you behind everybody else.” 

Junior Lily Lewis said something similar: “Forcing people to go downstairs to go get a tardy slip is just wasting their time, your time, and everybody’s time.” 

The common consensus among the student body seems to be that the sweeps are unnecessary and definitely not the right way to handle this situation. 

As Lewis said: “If people are going to be tardy then they’re going to be tardy no matter what.” 

Fisher agreed with Lewis, stating “I think the students who really don’t care about being tardy also don’t care about missing class.”

Most students also agree that the sweeps will not be as effective as the staff hopes they will be. Junior Charlotte Breeden even thinks the sweeps may have the opposite effect entirely: “I think the students aren’t going to care and are just going to retaliate… it’s just going to create more trouble for the staff.”

There is also a worry that the wrong students are being targeted. All students interviewed mentioned the long walk from the Mods to the third floor, a walk that PCNN has previously recorded in our attendance story from last school year. This has become a hot topic of late because of the fact that the student body at Panther Creek is well over our capacity. 

“It causes people who aren’t even trying to be tardy to become late,” Niyati Patel said. 

Kayla Welch agreed: “If your class is far, then you can’t really change that.” Fisher added: “sometimes if I have to walk from Mod 5 to the third floor… I can’t always do it.”

Breeden also brought up worry for being tardy without meaning to be. While her classes are close together this semester, she states worry because “Next semester I don’t know where my classes are.”

A solution to this issue was brought up by Patel, who offered “if they’re going to do another [tardy sweep], they should at least make it a little later to catch the people that are missing class on purpose and not the people who are trying to make it.”

Most students are against tardy sweeps in any form. As Welch said: “It’s already marked on PowerSchools either way”, a testament to the desire for a different discipline method by our administration. 

If we can find a way to lessen the amount of tardies without punishing those who are not repeat offenders or in circumstances out of their control, that would make many students happier about this plan. But as it stands, tardy sweeps are not a popular choice.