Walt Whitman is one of many schools in the country currently experiencing an unprecedented surge in chronic absenteeism. In Montgomery County, 35.8% of high school students were chronically absent in the 2022-23 school year, defined as missing at least 10% of school days during the year, compared to the 2018-19 school year, when 19.6% of students were chronically absent.

In response to rising levels of nonattendance and tardiness, Whitman administrators began enforcing periodic hall sweeps starting Jan. 15, requiring all teachers to lock their classroom doors when the bell rings to start the period. During a sweep, staff members send any students remaining in the hallways after the bell to the auditorium, where administrators discipline them and document their tardiness. 

While attempting to remedy chronic absenteeism and tardiness is understandable, this methodology is unfair and counterproductive. Instead of handing out blanket punishments, Whitman administrators should consistently require teachers to immediately take attendance at the bell to mark lateness, with office staff following up with students and parents for chronic attendance issues. 

The hall sweep aims to reduce the number of students in the hallways without passes. Generally, most tardy students are a couple of minutes late and aren’t significantly disruptive to their respective classrooms. Lateness isn’t a habit for most students but rather a consequence of that day’s circumstances. The policy groups students who are a couple of minutes late, even for the first time, with students who are consistently and disruptively late, and gives them the same punishment. 

The most significant inefficiency of the policy is how much class time it takes away from the swept students. By the time administrators have rounded up late students, delivered a speech about attendance and processed everyone, each student has lost significant class time. The policy forces students who are only a few minutes late to miss a crucial amount of class time, a completely counterproductive punishment if the goal is to maximize learning and attendance. 

The argument that the sweeps are a necessary evil to scare students into getting to class on time ignores the reality of why students are in the hallways without a pass. Several factors, including a teacher concluding a thought after the bell rings or a student needing to use the bathroom during the passing period, could result in a student being unfairly caught in a hall sweep. 

Additionally, the standard bathroom passes that Whitman supplies teachers with inevitably get lost when students leave them in the bathroom. This irresponsibility leads to a significant number of teachers who lack consistent, recognizable passes. Junior Raj Basu was on a sanctioned break in the middle of his double-period class when he and some classmates were caught up in the sweeps, he said. 

“I was stopped by a teacher even though my classroom was right around the corner, and told that if I didn’t go down to the auditorium, they would call security,” Basu said. “Every teacher that I encountered, I tried to explain the situation, and no one cared.” 

With hall sweeps looming on students’ minds, students might feel like they need a pass for anything that could lead to them being swept. This significant increase in passes being sent out will overload the current system, essentially making it obsolete.

The punishments officials enact for students caught in the sweep are equally damaging. The threat of losing a parking pass after just two tardies has very real consequences for students who rely on driving to school because of a lack of school-provided transportation. In addition, threatening to forbid students from attending extracurricular activities prevents students from enriching their education to a level that a regular school day can’t match. Mitigating or even removing access to extracurriculars, which expand upon topics and skills only superficially covered in Whitman classes, actively harms student development. Sophomore varsity debater Anushka Narain Shukla said debate has improved her writing skills for courses at Whitman.

“It helps me learn how to articulate arguments better,” Narain said. “I’ve definitely seen that I’m able to write better, plus write a lot quicker.”

Students are well aware of the consequences of frequent tardiness; none have changed. According to MCPS policy, three unexcused tardies are counted as one unexcused absence on attendance records. Controlling punishment structures in a way that preaches what we already know but avoids the commotion and impracticality of sending students to the auditorium can decrease student initiative and increase reliance on external motivation factors. 

Ultimately, the hall sweep policy directly contradicts the intended purpose of high school—to prepare students for the real world.

Whitman is taking the most unnecessary and destructive route to deter students from being late to class. A more effective and efficient solution would be to closely monitor teachers to ensure they mark students as late for arriving after the bell rings. For chronically absent students, office staff could follow up with their guardians to discuss the nature of the issue. This strategy would still punish students who are consistently late while being more fair to one-time offenders. 

Basu said chronic absenteeism is a problem administrators must resolve, but disagreed with the hall sweep policy.

“Some other kind of enforcement is needed because attendance can be an issue,” Basu said. “The sweep was not the way to go about it because it ended up catching just as many, if not more, people who are not part of the chronic issue.”