The Paw Print

By Owen Zolner

The morning commute is a pressure-filled daily occurrence for students here at Payton. Many students get driven, some take the bus, and others bike. There is potential for issues with every type of commute. A student on one side of the city might have to wait 20 minutes for a bus that a student on another side of the city would only have to wait 5 minutes for. Attendance policies directly disadvantage students who don’t have access to a car or a parent who can drive them to school. Payton student Alex Zhunio reported that on one day with particularly inclement weather the “Orange Line was delayed 2 hours- I couldn’t get a ride, so I just had to miss school that day.” Students can get absences and tardies because of factors outside of their control. Many students lose out on tons of sleep because they need to wake up earlier to account for unpredictable transit times. 

Previously, this was not the case for Payton, who had a ten-minute long advisory period at the start of every day, as well as a tardy system that had few(if any) implications for late students, other than the fact that they would miss some class time. Students came in at 8:10 and would not be tardy; some even chose to come in past 9, knowing that if they had a class that did not have some kind of rigorous instruction that day, they would be able to take a tardy with no real consequences. Now, the morning commute is a stress-filled time. CTA accountability tends to be the difference maker in whether a student gets in on time or not- and different students have to deal with different transit times. Upperclassmen, who have had to deal with this fast and jarring shift, are some of the most impacted- students have had to deal with a harsh shift to this punitive policy, and those who don’t adapt suffer and miss out on school opportunities because of it.

The voting to remove the advisory has only worsened the situation. Students who could have previously used the buffer period to account for any transit issues now have to hope that they show up on time, or risk missing out on opportunities that, as students, they deserve to be entitled to. For example, if a student gets three tardies while on the attendance plan, they can’t go to dances. Payton Junior Kenneth Castillo-Lemus, who lives an hour away in the western area of Humboldt Park reported that he was barred from the dance after he got three tardies on the attendance plan due to delayed trains. He “couldn’t go to homecoming, even after I tried to explain the situation to them. When I asked for help, I was told that I should just wake up earlier. It’s hard because I have responsibilities that I have to do before school, like making breakfast for me and my siblings. I’m already waking up at 5:30 as is, and the burden that my schoolwork puts on me makes it hard for me to go to sleep much earlier. I don’t know what to do.” Students who are late are also denied participation in some of Payton’s elite clubs, such as the National Honors Society, solely because of a few tardies. They are getting privileges revoked because of factors largely outside of their control. 

Although managing student attendance presents a difficult logistical challenge, it is still important to acknowledge that advisory was more than just a buffer period that some students abused daily to get to class later; it was a time to build community, a unique way to start every single day, and it being revoked demonstrates that pumping the most possible school into the smallest amount of time is a higher priority than student mental health. At a minimum, students could have at least used the advisory as a buffer period. Say a student was planning on getting in at eight, but an unforeseen delay caused them to get in at 8:03. That same student, who previously would’ve been in on time, is now put in the same bucket as students who show up at 9.  The system just isn’t fair. Payton Junior Angel Hernandez reported that this year he had 15 tardies- all of which were in the same class, in which he was never more than 10 minutes late. Different teachers with different policies unfairly harm students. 

Stripping away the previous attendance and advisory policy not only takes away a moment of respite but also erodes the sense of community that once defined our mornings. We as students work extremely hard and don’t deserve strict policies that punish us for circumstances beyond our control. We deserve a system that prioritizes student well-being and acknowledges the diverse challenges faced daily by students who are just trying to get into school on time. Reflecting the sentiments of countless students, Pascal Bradley stresses, “We require policies that grasp our challenges and prioritize our mental health, not penalize us for factors beyond our control.”