On February 14, students were swept to the ALC room only a couple minutes after the bell. Don Lugo administration fails to follow the rules of the student handbook that was designed by the school board. In the student handbook it states that all students will need to pick up a late slip from the attendance office and use it as a “ticket-in” to first period.

The student handbook also mentions, “Students 20 or more minutes late will be swept and taken to in-house suspension (ALC) for the duration of the class period.” This was a complete violation to the student handbook which upset some of the students that were taken to the ALC room. A fellow journalist, Aiden Deming, who was also swept up by the tardy sweep says, “The conditions in the ALC room were as terrible as the idea of tardy sweeps itself. Admin had no sympathy for who was being swept up. The room was so filled that people had to sit down on the floor. I saw peoples Valentine’s gifts being ripped away from them and taken to the office to be collected later that day. It was almost as if admin had built a makeshift prison camp on our campus.”

Clearly students were upset and surprised by the tardy sweeps happening only a few minutes after the bell. An anonymous teacher who spoke with us said, “It is out of admin’s frustration that this is happening. This is meant to send a message to students to discourage tardiness. Until a new solution is proposed I will continue to advocate a change in the tardy sweep policy if admin continues to override it.” However, administration has yet to send the correct message to students. Many students felt as though the tardy sweep was a waste of time that could have been spent learning, and turned the problem of being a few minutes late into an entire period gone.