Davis High School gives deficient citizenship grades to students who have over four tardies, excessive absences, or act out in class. The idea is to punish the student in a way where they require a certain number of hours of service to take the grade away. This is so the student can again participate in school activities such as purchasing a parking pass or being in school sports. Seems like a good plan, but does it work?

Once the student has been tardy four times he is given his or her “U” citizenship grade. Then what? Now the student has no motivation to not be tardy the rest of the days. They’ve already got their U so why not sleep in for fifteen more minutes each day? It’s not like the administration will do anything else.

Also, Davis High now offers citizenship make up classes where students pay a fee and go to a classroom after school to “learn good behavior skills.” I have been to this class, and the teacher turned on a movie. I slept for a couple hours while others did the same or sat on their phones. One kid even watched his own movie. It gave me no reason to not to get another U. I can be cleared for sleeping, which was the same reason I was tardy multiple times.

The school obviously needs to change their policy, having some kind of punishment more severe if the student still acts up after given the U.