Students were given reason to rejoice and celebrate on the very first day of school once they heard that the Loss of Credit (LC) policy of past years was no more. Immediately, conversations began about being able to skip any class any time and getting away with it. Students at WJ and throughout the county seemingly had their wish granted, and only at the expense of teachers’ patience and generosity.

While students can no longer lose credit in a class they are consistently tardy or absent for, teachers have already planned ways to combat the potential issue of arriving late and skipping class, like giving “warm-up quizzes” at the very beginning of class. Although the students may have won the battle, the teachers and administration will win the war, and students will soon regret the day the LC policy was changed.

In past years, under the old LC policy, a student would lose credit after compiling a total of five unexcused absences or 15 unexcused tardies, with three of these unexcused tardies equaling one unexcused absence.

“Fifteen tardies is very generous,” said Spanish teacher Mark Churchwell, commenting on the positive aspects of the former policy. Many teachers seem to agree with Churchwell or even believe it was too lenient.

Even when a student was on the verge of losing credit in a class, most teachers would still be willing to work with that student.

Despite the obvious flexibility that the old policy provided all students, they continued to complain.

“It wasn’t my fault; I promise I won’t be late again.” The excuses went on and on.

Some students argued that they didn’t need to come to class to do well, but rather they could teach themselves and do their homework from the comforts of their own home. Frustration from students, coupled with persistent parent complaints, forced the hand of MCPS officials to change the policy.

Students often find themselves lost and behind when taking advanced classes, and missing teachers’ simplified, in-class summaries of last night’s dense reading doesn’t help. These class discussions are often the key to putting together everything discussed in the homework.

“You can’t be successful [when] not coming to class [for] a foreign language,” said Churchwell.

After missing school for an excused reason, such as a sickness or a college visit, a student is provided with three days, an ample amount of time, to turn in a parent note excusing their absence.

Although it is true that we are highschoolers, and teenagers on top of that, and that we have to get to school much too early, that’s life and we have to deal with it. Unfortunately, our daily class schedule is not going to change anytime soon. Besides, guess what would happen if an adult with a regular nine-to-five job consistently arrived late for work, say, maybe 14 or 15 times? Chances are they’d be jobless before they knew it.