After a semester full of tardies, followed by punishments such as detentions, students feel that there should be different degrees of tardies with different punishments.

At this time, a student who is two minutes late has the same penalty as a student who is two periods late.

Staff and students feel that having different levels of tardies would cut down the number of penalties that people have to fulfill.

Booth operator Cindy Leach agrees with what students are trying to implement.

“I feel that there should definitely be a different penalty for students who are two minutes late and two periods late, unless the same student is regularly two minutes late,” said Leach.

Students who have never had to face disciplinary actions in their lives are being subjected to them because of multiple tardies.

“At the beginning of the year I was close to being tardy at least once a week,” senior Meghan Clark said. “ I am tardy pretty often. Whenever I am tardy though, it’s only by a minute or two.”

Some students such as Clark simply are not morning people and are being penalized for it.

“I am tardy so much because I am not a morning person and have a really hard time waking up in the morning,” said Clark. “I end up sleeping through my four alarm clocks that I set one after another just because I am so tired in the morning, and then I end up getting to school right when the bell rings.”

There are also situations that students can’t control which lead them to be tardy. Hopkinton is a busy town with big companies such as EMC. They have many employees sharing the road with students who are trying to make it to school on time.

Ella Cornu, a senior, says that her being tardy is frequently out of her control.

“I live on the other side of town and am always fighting with commuter traffic,” said Cornu.“If I leave even a minute late, I’m going to be tardy.”