Trains running early in the morning, buses canceled or late, traffic, lack of parking… These are all reasons an abundance of kids have been getting tardies recently. But is it really their fault? And while parents can call in to excuse their kids’ tardies, they may not want to, or may not be able to.

    And a vast majority of the students’ tardies can come from parents not calling them in. While some parents are absent in that area, there are also parents who step up to excuse their kid, which often can have them lying about the child’s reason for their tardiness. There will always be parents whole lie about their students tardiness, when the blame completely falls on them, but there should be a system in place where those who don’t have parents who will call in for them should be able to vouch for themselves

     So why is it fair to the students whose parents don’t call in to dismiss their tardy? Parents can also be unaware of the tardy until it is too late. They might leave for work before their child leaves for school, without knowing it may be canceled or late that day.  What if the parent is too busy with work to call that in, or the staff flat out cannot get ahold of the parent? Why should the kid be punished for that?

     This is made more prevalent with the weather, with snow, rain, and wind being a constant of a West kid’s life. Kids who walk to school can easily encounter trouble with this Oregonian weather. Two hour delays can often cause confusion and make it so parents are not able to bring their kids to school. All in all, kids getting penalized for things that are the parents fault isn’t fair to them.

     So where do we go from here? There should be a system in place in which parents aren’t the only ones who can vouch for the student. The student should be able to vouch for themselves in certain circumstances. Whether it’s a late bus, a train or “their alarm didn’t go off” a kid shouldn’t have to rely on others to excuse their tardies. That isn’t to say it should be allowed for kids to just say the bus was slow, they should have to provide evidence as to not abuse it.: