New Attendance Policy at Whitney Young has Seniors WORRIED!

By Justin Warren

September 2018

Seniors are on edge at Whitney Young! Recently a new and strict attendance policy has been adopted by the dolphins on August 31st, right before the first week of the 2018-2019 school year. As a result, seniors fear the possibility of missing out on senior year activities. The recent attendance policy prohibits only seniors of the student body, from having no more that eight unexcused absences… throughout the entire school year. A study shows that the average student in America misses about 10 days every school year, which is two days more than a violation at Whitney Young. The only way for an student to get out of this predicament, is if they can provide physical paper evidence that will be verified by a school counselor.

The intentions on implementing this rule, was to prevent senseless absences especially since many student will have “senioritis”. Along with this, the council at Whitney Young explained that number of absences in the senior class last year was around the highest its have ever been. Therefore, they thought that making this rule would prevent this from happening again.

Many senior students have spoken out against this new rule out of frustration. In doing so, the Seniors have expressed their concerns and opinions.

A senior at Whitney Young, Jonathan Swain said that the Whitney Young council should “Do a better job at communicating what an unexcused absence is and the process of erasing them as well.” With this said, multiple students are still confused and still have questions about the technicalities of the policy.

Another Senior, who asked not to be mentioned, said that this policy also “Adds extra stress and anxiety Seniors along with homework, college applications and extra curricular activities.” This “stress and anxiety” is stemming from the fear of missing out on important activities like prom and graduation.

Lastly Senior, Brooklyn Fort-Davis, mentioned that “Students who are sick throughout the school year are feeling forced to still come to school because of the new policy.” This is a good point because the policy has made students choose to risk their health and possibly spread a sickness throughout the school.

https://www.wyoung.org/pdf/student_handbook.pdf

Attached is the student handbook of Whitney Young which explains the policy in depth.