Editorial: Late for Life

A typical Albany morning, it would seem, consists of getting up at a reasonable hour, a few minutes either side of seven o’clock, walking the relatively flat, less-than-one mile to school (or driving, if your parents bought you a car), and…what? Being marked tardy? What did you do to deserve this?

This scenario is the new routine-du-jour for Albany High students, now attending school under the rules and policies of new principal Ted Barone and new assistant principals Susan Charlip and Tami Benau.

Although they have also promised to work to stop hazing and to create a sense of community amongst students and faculty, the tardy policy is consistently the issue on the tips of students angered, late tongues.

These policies, harsh and unfamiliar to Albany students, have effectively shifted many students to a frame of mind that says something to the tune of “The administration wants to ruin my life.”

Many teachers now have sign-in sheets in their classrooms, requiring students to document the actual time they came into class. This replaces the tried, tested method of swearing on your deity of choice that you were there, and that the teacher simply passed over you while calling role at that ungodly hour of seven-forty.

Albany High, while casting its prestigious shadow over other districts, faces the daunting shadow of policies that should have been in place a long time ago.

“We are just enforcing the old policy. Students should know that the tardy situation was out of control in previous years,” said Barone, responding to the muttered complaints heard daily.

In the real world – that place you go after schooling – tardiness, in most cases, will not be tolerated. The tardy policy, forgotten until recently, was written not only to motivate students to get to school on time, but as a practice of discipline required in the real world.

Consider for a moment that all of you may not actually be from the time-exempt noble birth of your beliefs, and accept that these are the rules, despite the inconvenience.

Many of you complain of school being “boring” and “sucky,” and wishing to make it “less boring,” and perhaps even “less sucky.”

As things stand right now, we have an all-new administrative staff that envisions new directions for the school, including giving students more say in the way things are done.

Before students can have a say in anything, however, other things need to be taken care of. Take, for example, cheating – a hot subject at AHS which continues to fester, harboring annoyance and difficulty for teachers and students. We can all agree that cheating needs to be remedied. It makes teachers annoyed, students nervous about being accused, and it creates an overall feeling of distrust between students and faculty.

How then, are we to get the cheating situation under control when we can’t even manage to get our student body to actually show up to class on time?

It’s in the hands of the students whether or not these changes ever happen. Until we can learn to follow the rules, what right do we have to getting a say in them?

4 Responses

1. 8:56 AM on October 16th, 2007Im not alone.:

   Ted Barone is a very dry individual and gets off from his job just a little too much. Im down for sending him to fiji so he can just chillaxe. That way the hostile student-Barone barrier might be broken. As for the officer, hes a wuss. Officer Mike parked at the end of the block everyday and walked the extra 100 feet, while he had cancer. This new officer is too lazy and pretentious to park there. Rest in peace.

2. 12:35 PM on October 16th, 2007Cougar Dad:

   “Consider for a moment that all of you may not actually be from the time-exempt noble birth of your beliefs, and accept that these are the rules, despite the inconvenience.”

   Where DID that kid learn to write like that?? Nicely done.

3. 3:54 PM on January 5th, 2008Sikrana:

   “Where DID that kid learn to write like that?? Nicely done.”

   He learned it from a systematic indoctrination of the concepts of authority, hierarchy, and mindless, unquestioning obedience known as the public education system.

4. 6:55 PM on March 7th, 2008Interested Student:

   I find the previous three comments quite amusing.

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