As of 8:55am this morning, Hickman offices were flooded with the very first round of tardy students. Tardy sweeps are being implemented this year to combat the climbing number of tardies that have been a school-wide issue at Hickman for some time now. This policy is foreign to some students but others know the rules coming from their middle schools. 

For any who are new to this policy, or needs a refresher, here’s how it works; starting at 8:55 a.m., teachers will be required to close and lock their doors and keep students in class for the first ten minutes of class. This is done in an effort to not confuse students leaving on purple/gold cards, or on a trip to the bathroom, with those students being swept for being tardy. 

Students who are still in the hallways without a pass after the bell rings will get “swept”. A teacher will escort them to either the east or west office, whichever one is nearer. The student’s consequences may vary depending on how many previous tardies they have received. One tardy results in a warning. Two tardies result in a warning and a contact home. The consequences get increasingly serious as the number of tardies increases. Once the student has been checked in at one of the offices, a teacher will escort them back to their class. These sweeps will be occurring after every passing period to catch kids who are out of class after the bell rings.

For many, this change is a hopeful one. Students, teachers and administrators believe that has the potential to cut back drastically on the increasing number of tardies Hickman saw over the past few years. When asked about the new sweeps, senior Ajia Vigil said, “I think it will definitely impact a lot of students who are often not into classes. I think it will really get them more involved in classes and maybe better grades, they’ll even get a better chance of a gold card.”