New policy charges students for tardiness

One school in Utah is fining students for being late to class.

If this sounds like a social media joke, it isn’t.

Administrators at Stansbury High School have put a new policy in place this year and it’s got parents all over the continent buzzing. How does it work? Administrators, not teachers, can issue a first warning to students who choose to hang around in the halls and arrive late to their next class. After that, they will have to pay a $3 fine for a second offence and a $5 fine the third time they are late to class.

So far the policy is working. The halls are empty between classes and administrators have only issued a few warnings. Anyone who can’t afford to pay can serve a lunch detention or make a better effort not to be late going forward. Any money collected will go directly back into the school to pay for programming.

But many parents are unhappy. Some worry it’s a cash grab. Others don’t believe a fine is a good way to teach accountability and responsibility. Others say they just wish they were consulted beforehand—the implementation, not the fine, is the issue.

In an interview, Principal Gailynn Warr told the media, “Our goal is not to get money . . . We just want kids in class.”

Is a fine an effective way to teach tardiness? We use the strategy to deal with things like parking tickets and overdue library books. But is implementing it at school going too far?