This year, Oxford has implemented a new detention policy to enforce discipline for tardies. For every second a student is late after the school’s 8:30 a.m. start time, a tracking machine records the tardy and prints out a receipt for students, automatically referring them to detention.
In past years, teachers were given the responsibility for writing and assigning detentions when students arrived late to class. However, as teachers became busier with lesson planning and instruction, assistant principal Matthew Griffin came up with this solution to relieve the weight off of teachers.
“The problem with that is our teachers are trying their hardest to engage our students in a lovely classroom experience and it makes sense that, oftentimes, our teachers either forget or can’t be dealing with something that doesn’t give them the time or the ability to stop and write a detention,” Griffin said. “So what I’ve done is I made it automated so that I can just do some clicks, move it over into another spreadsheet and be able to email the students to remind them they arrived tardy and that they now have a detention to serve.”
This immediately went into effect, and shortly after, 40 students served detention on Wednesday Sept. 17. Some were called in for being a few minutes late while others reported getting the gate closed in front of them.
“I got one tardy, and I was one minute late. [This system is unfair] because it gives [people] no warning and it uses up their time. They could give students warnings instead of immediately giving students detention.” freshman Jaden Adhavan said.
Assistant Principal Matthew Griffin emphasized that the policy was never intended to punish unfairly, but rather to encourage a healthy habit of punctuality.
“I was tardy because I’m remodeling my house, and my mom was talking to one of the workers. When I came, I was walking in and I almost made it, but they closed the gate in front of me.” eighth grader Alessandra Valdivia said.
“I don’t think it’s very fair for people who live far away because it’s an outside factor that we can’t control,” freshman Allyson Hong said.
Despite student frustration, Griffin emphasized that the policy was never intended to punish unfairly, but rather to encourage a healthy habit of punctuality while allowing leniency for specific circumstances.
“School starts at 8:30 a.m. That has not changed. So then you should do whatever it takes to get here on time…All students are able to, with a legitimate reason, get that detention excused. If they were going to school, and there was a kitten in the middle of the road and they saved the kitten’s life, I would excuse that tardy arrival,” Griffin said. “So I think it’s very important to recognize the fact that we are flexible and that if there is a reason for your tardy arrival, then we need that discussion.”
This highlights a slight gap in communication, as many students were unaware that they could appeal their detentions. Although detentions are not reflected on academic records, they may still affect how students view their relationships with staff and the school’s approach to discipline.
As the year continues, the policy will test whether the school can maintain a balance between enforcing accountability and better professional development and recognizing the challenges students face outside the classroom.
