According to Barbra Lockett, 1 in 20 students are currently on the Loss of Privilege list here at San Diego High. These statistics were updated at the conclusion of the second grading period. Some, such as freshmen, may be unaware of policies that were not present in middle school; for many students, policies did not highlight the importance of attendance and were very lenient to absenteeism, especially with the Every Student Succeeds Act, which ultimately lessened measures against absenteeism, altering educational paths in secondary education. And for our newly established freshmen, they may have had difficulty processing the now-absent policies in their student life. To understand the LOP list, we must first understand ourselves as students and what LOP is supposed to fix.
For some, this has not sunk in, and they have had to learn the hard way. According to Ms. Lockett, another source of truancies and absences is the evasion of certain classes or teachers, leading to not going to school if it’s a first-period class (1A, 8B/1B) or going to another teacher’s class midday to avoid their initial period. Whatever the reason, current statistics provided by Ms. Lockett show the number of students impacted by LOP.
In an interview with Ms. Barbara Lockett, the Restorative Justice Coordinator and Guidance Center staff stated her disapproval of students who hide in other classes and teachers who allow it, exacerbating a feeling of devaluation towards other teachers. Ms Locket stated she used to allow students to come to the guidance center to combat this issue, but instead affirmed it. Leading to an abuse of student services such as the guidance and wellness center.
And updates in our near future in terms of attendance: For LOP, the future is rather unpredictable in nature in the direction it may follow. In favor of leniency or behavioral reform in terms of attendance. Those mostly affected are athletes, for some purposes, being better at performing athletically than in other subjects, or students in clubs or select classes who go on field trips, hindering their ability to participate.
And despite staffing and funding issues, there will still be recovery options in the future, including a lesser-known tutoring space in the morning in room 802. Also, an introduction for a network in the works, “LinkCrew”, to have collaboration with upperclassmen and freshmen to be a positive system to address a range of norms in high school, and give advice. This could significantly deter the attendance issue for freshmen.
But they must also know that grades do significantly contribute to the loss of privilege. Beyond complaint, if students must change, they must advocate for themselves via their student representatives of the site governance team, i.e, Nathan Williams, Jacob Nitzel, and Cashel O’Connor.
