Tamalpais High School administration enacted a stricter attendance policy beginning Aug. 17 of this school year. The policy had been drafted at the end of the prior school year but didn’t come into effect until the first day. This new attendance policy consists of tighter rules regarding tardiness and absences. The administration felt that, due to the large number of tardies and unexcused absences seen last year, there was a significant change to be made. 

“So if you have five or more tardies in one class or ten total, your parents are contacted, and the students will receive a notification, “ Dean of Students Nathan Bernstein said. 

Some students feel as if this is unreasonable or that there is little leniency for mistakes. 

“ I feel it is a bit extreme because there should be a small room for human error, and five tardies in a semester is a little bit unfair,” senior Owen Dasovich said. 

Depending on the student’s specific situation, changes are made to design a system to get them back on track. 

“Like if a student has recurring tardies right after lunch, they can be prohibited from having off campus lunch,” Bernstein said. 

So far there have been positive outcomes from the newly proposed policy, “We have seen an improvement but we still got a large way to go,” Bernstein said.  The consequences of not adhering to this new policy vary drastically among students. The most drastic of consequences is a student’s license possibly getting taken, says Bernstein, but most commonly, consequences consist of revoked privileges, like off-campus lunches and social events (homecoming, prom, etc.). However, most students seem to have not been correctly informed about this new policy. Along with students not knowing what the policy entails, it is implied that they are unaware of the consequences. 

“No, I do not know about the new consequences. Is it detention?” junior Stella Lowery said. 

For students less affected by this attendance policy, it’s not crucial for them to know what it exactly includes, but there is a large population of students who need to know what violates the rules or not. 

“Yes, I think the attendance policy helps kids. Being on time to school and class is very important for being productive,” Dasovich said.

Tam administration wants to clarify these rules are not in place to punish students but to help them realize the importance of a high school education, “I want kids to understand that adults are not in the purpose of this business to punish kids, we are doing it because we see the long term effects of not getting a highschool diploma or not being in class,” Bernstein said.