You leap out of the car and slam the door behind you, sprinting into school with one minute to spare. You round the corner before your first class, but right before you pass through the doorway, the bell rings. Late again!
Should you have woken up earlier? Prepared for more traffic? Or do attendance policies punish students for things beyond their control?
NDB’s rules when it comes to students being in class are pretty self-explanatory and generally align with most California public school policies. According to the NDB 2025-2026 Handbook, no more than 10% of a course can be missed, students may be allowed up to 3 excused tardies per semester, and neither parking nor traffic is considered a reasonable excuse (p. 52-56). While these seem like relatively reasonable guidelines, complications may arise in student life that cause the consequences of tardiness and absences to be misdirected.
“[Tardiness] is excused if a student is not feeling well, has a medical appointment, a dental appointment, physical therapy, and I am notified by a parent, no problem,” stated Student Service Coordinator Barbara Tauskey. “My suggestion…is to leave earlier in the morning because traffic is never going to get better, most especially on Ralston Ave. So that is unexcused.”
Generally, about half of any high school population is unlicensed, meaning that 50% of students rely on other means of timely transportation to get to school. Parents, older siblings or carpooling all pose the risk of traffic or other car trouble to impede timeliness. While annoying, these factors are completely out of the students’ hands, who in turn, will lose class time, miss information about work content, deal with scolding and stress, and if more than 30 minutes late, even an unexcused absence.
Another popular option is public transportation. Caltrain is a common mode of transport that many NDB students use, and it is facilitated by a school-driven shuttle that picks up and drops off students at the station. However, the train often deals with delays related to weather conditions, track congestion, and equipment issues, and shuttle drivers are often late picking up when facing morning traffic. And yet, students are faulted for coming in late.
Upperclassmen who have the opportunity to get their driver’s license may beat some of these tardy troubles, but exchange them for a whole set of new ones. Traffic is still a hassle that is difficult to pre-plan for, and even worse, driving individually means fighting for a parking spot. Juniors get their own parking lot behind the school, which is made entirely of gravel with no defined spots or lines. This results in waves of chaos in the morning and afternoon, which has resulted in numerous minor car accidents, which only further delay students getting to class.
Furthermore, both sophomores who have no specific parking spots and seniors who cannot afford to pay for their own senior parking spot are forced to battle with teachers and visitors to find a spare undesignated spot on campus, or are even forced to park off campus and walk to class, all of which racks up the time.
“I only had my license for a month as a sophomore on my way to school…I was in the middle of a turn lane, and a junior completely merged into me, side swiping my car,” shared senior Brooke Morse when detailing her car troubles on campus. “This was when we were allowed to park in front of the theatre…sophomores, juniors, and seniors were all trying to park in one area…I’d often have to park on the streets outside of school. I had to park far away, and I’d get in trouble for where I’d park, so I had to leave class to move my car; it all interrupted my learning.”
This variety of reasons challenges the student punishments for absence and tardiness when they are very much so, or even completely, out of their control. As high schoolers have all fallen victim to unprecedented traffic, lack of parking, and more unfortunate commuter trouble, grace should be given to students battling these types of circumstances.
