Hi! Teacher here, the tardies at JPMS are outrageous. Just for context, on a normal day, about 50% of my fifth and sixth period students are tardy. That’s about 15 students per class. And not by a few seconds, it’s like three to thirty minutes! This is a big safety concern. Large groups of students are in the hall, unsupervised (because teachers are busy teaching) leading to fights, vandalism, etc. There are also multiple students who are tardy to every class, every day. That’s 35 tardies per week!! In addition to being a safety concern, the students disrupt class when they come late. I wish that you would have gotten a teacher’s perspective for your story. I would have liked the parents you interviewed to provide some suggestions for solutions to the tardy issue or acknowledgement of the problem. They clearly do not know what is going on in the school. 

-Teacher at JPMS 

I'm kind of stunned. There are really parents who are involved and want their kids to get a good education, yet are OPPOSED to this? Which is, frankly, not even a decent stab at a half-measure...? Tardy twice every day for two or three weeks? And prior to this new policy, THAT was tolerated? Please tell me that this whole article was a sort of prank, because my head hurts just from reading it. Either it is comfortably possible to get from class to class during the allotted time, or it is not. If it is, ANY SINGLE tardiness should have consequences– not just for the tardy child, but for the sake of the other students, whose classroom time is compromised by others' tardiness. If it is NOT comfortably possible to pass in a timely manner, what we should be talking about is why the passing time schedule is wrong-headed, and how to fix it. And the school administration should be tasked with making that happen. This is really not rocket science. This is about helping students develop appropriate life skills, and insisting they show the most basic consideration for others– that of being on time unless excused from that responsibility. 

-A concerned Grampa (who's not all that old...!), Jim K. 

"A silent lunch and no movement for multiple days at school." Whaaaat?! I am glad my kids are not at Justice Page. Tell me how this is effective for kids in what will (hopefully!) be their first full school year after a pandemic, extended distance learning, CDD and a strike? 

-Janelle J. 

I am a former school psychologist who, for 22 years, has trained school staffs and new coaches on Present Moment Parenting and Teaching. I work at Anu Family Services, a treatment foster care agency, where we employ 25 parent coaches in helping families remain stable for the sake of traumatized children. We have had amazing success with this goal. Happy to share our statistics! What we know about authoritarian approaches to behavior change is that they only bring resistance. I am happy to speak with advocates for change at Justice. Their new tardiness policy is a guarantee of negative results and I can help avert this outcome with compassionate communication between teachers, administrators and students. Thank you! 

-Tina F. 

At Justice Page, the first class is an information class. This is not vital to educating a child! There are fewer than five minutes between classes and kids aren't allowed to carry backpacks, so they are hauling a ten-pound binder everywhere in a school of nearly 1000 students changing classes all at once on multiple floors. What really bothers me about this policy is the children weren't involved in the process. They are the ones that need to take the responsibility, yet the powers that be aren't going to hear their voices. 

As a parent and grandparent when I have an issue that needs to be resolved, I ask the kids first how they view the issue, explain my side and ask for ideas on how to correct the situation. This is called respect, compromise and understanding from all points of view. In life, people aren't always on time, nor are they punished by cleaning the work space or coming in on their day off! Or not being asked to move WTF! Maybe the school should recognize the problem is with their parameters, not the students. I can not see where this is teaching them to feel respected or to be responsible. I feel this is saying "we don't need to speak to you about your tardiness, it doesn’t matter to us, show up when we say or find yourself in the ugly side of our school prison. We don't care why this is occurring or to find a solution. We own you, control you. You do as we say or we punish you. You aren't entitled to a voice and you aren't responsible for your actions.” 

In my personal experience maybe they should rethink how little people learn to determine how they should be taught. Maybe if they took the time, they would understand the difference between teaching young adults and preparing them for prison and factory work. They would be amazed at how colleges and businesses alike teach. Being tardy isn't an issue for 98% of businesses, not just because people are paid, nope, it's because the workforce is now left trying to instill the value in employees who have never felt valued, heard or seen since they began school. If learning was in the hands of students, parents, grandparents and teachers who truly care and understand how learning happens at multiple levels, not just this way or no way, our school systems wouldn't be institutions. They would be facilitators of knowledge, as they are intended to be. 

-Gigi 

What parent would not support an accountability system for one's child to be in school on time and for the duration of the school day? These parents aren't commenting on the policy… rather, they are questioning the process by which they weren't consulted prior to the announcement of the policy. Every parent knows or should know that learning cannot occur unless the student is in the classroom. Justice Page Middle School has made the right decision to hold students' accountable for their on-time attendance record. 

-Julie S. 

The following question (in italics) was in an email containing questions about Minneapolis Schools Voices, including one about the Justice Page attendance policy. The response is from the Minneapolis Schools Voices team.

In terms of this article, was there any thought to or attempt to gather information about why this policy is coming out now and what interventions have been tried?

We reached out to Justice Page Middle School and Minneapolis Public Schools and they did not, and still have not, responded to our requests to chat.

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