For years, BSM’s attendance policy has received mixed opinions. Though it may appear as an effective way to keep students attending classes, it is pretty strict. The attendance policy should be a little more flexible when it comes to punishing students, especially if a student is sick or has another logical reason for missing classes.
According to the student handbook, the attendance policy states that if a student misses a class period more than four times during the same semester, communication will be made with that student as well as their parents or guardians. If they have six absences, a behavior support meeting will be scheduled. Seven absences result in a final warning for the student and possible removal from the course if they have any more absences.
This policy can be challenging for some students to follow, especially if they are sick for a large portion of the year. This has resulted in students feeling the need to come to school sick, causing more sickness to be spread around. The fear of the attendance policy has created a worse learning environment. With the end of the semester approaching, many students, including myself, are running out of free absences, making me feel pressured to come to school for fear of attending a behavior support meeting.
Another student who has been directly affected by this, junior Addison Buhl, was sick for a large portion of the year. Her grades had never been a concern which made the threat to give her an F if she kept being absent shocking. She believes that the policy is a little overboard when it comes to threatening students who may simply have been sick for a large portion of the year. “[The attendance policy] really stresses me out and I feel like I’m forced to come in sick. Earlier this year, I got really sick… I only had four absences in some of my classes for the entire semester, and I was getting emails home and my parents were stressed out… it led to me coming in sick and being tired and getting other people sick,” Buhl said.
Some changes should be made to the attendance policy. The policy should give a little bit more leeway, especially if a student is absent because of illness or for another logical reason. I do understand the consequences of missing so many classes, but I wish that grades wouldn’t be taken into account so much. If I was sick for a long period of time in a class that I had a good grade in, I would hope my absences wouldn’t cause my grade to be dropped from an A to an F simply because of missing class. Overall, more flexibility throughout the policy would help relieve students of stress.