You’ve barely slept, faced a stomach ache, braved traffic, and missed your train when, at 8:15 AM, you arrive to school and dreadfully tap in, knowing you’ll be getting a lateness email from noreply@ramaz.org later that day. There is nobody there to help you, no one to whom you can explain just how when everything wasn’t going your way to begin with, and despite your hardest efforts, you were late to school. “None of that nonsense, you’re late! There is nothing you can do about it,” screams the universe into your ear.

In my opinion, the school needs to personalize its lateness system. There has to be someone to whom you can explain why you were late, rather than an automatic system emailing you. There needs to be somebody to whom you can explain that you weren’t feeling well or that the train was delayed. As of now, no latenesses are excused. A doctor’s note, a family occasion, extreme transportation delays – all of these perfectly reasonable excuses are dismissed without question. No excuse is deemed excusable.

Students should not be held responsible for things that are out of their control. It is understandable that a teacher cannot just accept a child’s word. Therefore, if a parent emails that their child’s lateness should be excused, there should be no further questions asked. The parent knows what the situation with their own kid was that morning much better than any automatic system sending students latenesses does. If there was a legitimate reason for the student’s lateness, they should in no way be penalized. A doctor’s note, a parent’s email, or a train delay that affected many students from a specific area are all things that should definitely be excused without a doubt!

Automating the lateness system fails to take into account legitimate explanations, and a student’s honest efforts to arrive to school on time. Although it seems that such an automated system might be more just than a person (indeed, many students took advantage of the previous lateness system), it is in fact the opposite. Maintaining the current system punishes the entire Ramaz student body for the tardiness and negligence of a group of  students who, at this point, have mostly graduated! The majority of students should not be held accountable, and should be given a fair lateness system.