The Tracy Unified School District (TUSD) has published a yearly handbook that guides what rules students must follow and the consequences they face for not following those rules. They are issued to every high school in our district. However, the handbook does not correctly address the problems facing the high schools in Tracy.
I interviewed Mr. Henderson, principal of our school and former Tracy High administrator, to get his word on the manner. According to Henderson, the biggest problem facing both Tracy and West is vaping. The handbook prohibits the use of vapes, categorized as e-cigarettes, on page 32 of the online edition. The consequences of breaking this rule, according to the handbook, are “disciplinary procedures”. Here at West, this means that students must take a class about the dangers of vaping after they are caught. But Mr. Henderson has stated that these classes aren’t always effective. He said “Do I think that vaping classes [are] the most efficient way to do it? No, because I’ve seen students do it and went right through it and will be caught for the same offense.” This addresses a major problem with those classes: students doing it just to get it done and then going back and doing it again.
Another problem not properly addressed is tardiness and truancy. Truancy is when a student is absent without a valid excuse for three or more days or absent for thirty minutes or more in one period three times or more.
Tardiness begins to be dealt with by admin at five tardies in one quarter, where a conference is held between them and the tardy student and their parents. Any more than ten tardies begin to lose you privileges. Despite the stakes of losing things, I still see the same students late to the same classes many times, even if a conference was held.
Truancy is dealt with by a letter sent home to the truant. Six or more days late or absent without an excuse, equal to twenty-four periods of unexcused absences, is when the truant and their parents meet with the site administrator to discuss the truancy.
That sounds good, but Mr. Henderson has said that they’ve only slightly cut down on tardiness and that it is still a massive problem, possibly second to vaping. This once again shows that the punishments written in the handbook do not adequately address the problem.
In summary, the handbook does not address the problems at hand correctly. To put it in an idiom, they slapped a Band-Aid on it without addressing the main problem at hand. Students punished by these rules do the thing they have to do consequently for it, only to be caught for the same thing later.
One thing we can do is figure out the root of the problem. Instead of attacking the plant growing on it, we attack the root. That could prevent repeat offenses and help people affected in the long run.
