Thousands of schools across America are dealing with the problem of student tardiness, and here at South Lakes, the circumstances are no different.

Assistant principal of the class of 2011 Lindsey Trout is one of many among teachers and administrators trying to put an end to the cause.

“I think most students look at tardies from one lense,” said Trout. “I think it’s important and a vital part of maintaining a safe learning environment.  Student’s don’t realize that it’s extremely disruptive when they walk in late and interrupt a class that has otherwise already started.”

South Lakes has recently adopted a new policy of calling home immediately after a student is declared tardy to a class.

“In an effort to help curve the situation we knew from other schools that parents would be calling,” said Trout. “Parents would say ‘get us off your call list’ and we would tell them that if they helped their students to get to class on time they wouldn’t get anymore calls.”

However, there are some students who aren’t happy with the new tardy procedure.

“I think it’s really annoying how people’s parents have to be called every time their kid is late to a class,” said sophomore Haley Vaughn. “They might have a good reason for being late and when their parents get the call they may not know that.”

Although some students disagree, the most recent system has been used in other schools in the county causing the rate of student’s tardiness to drop to a mere 1% per class period.

“The new policy has obviously proven to be really effective,” said freshman Alexandra Fisher-Tringle. “I also think that sometimes kids are late and it’s not their fault.  I think that there should be a warning first.”

Other students, such as freshman Samantha Klonaris, agree with Fisher-Tringle.

“I don’t like [the new policy] because there are a lot of people in the halls who move really slow, really, really, slow, and we shouldn’t be punished just because they won’t move,” said Klonaris.

According to Trout, time in between classes may be increased to the amount of tardies caused by crowded hallways.

“A big piece of it is the amount of time in between classes,” said Trout. “We’re not trying to set it up so it’s a ‘gotcha-game’, like how many students we can get in one period of time.  We really just want students to get to class on time.”