At the start of every school year, Trinity students have to take time to get re-adjusted to everyday school life.  One of the hardest adjustments is waking up in the early hours and getting to school before the eight o’clock bell.  Some students are able to go the whole year unscathed from that dreaded yellow piece of paper, otherwise known as a late slip, while others are plagued morning after morning with Student Affairs Office Assistant Mickey Engelbrecht’s signature.

Trinity’s faculty noticed the number of students arriving late to school and decided it was time for a change.

The change relates to the number of late slips required to receive a late jug (detention).  In previous years, school policy said one would receive a late jug if he received three late slips.  Starting this year, the new school policy states that each time a student is late to school, he will receive a late jug.  In contrast, a student must receive five late slips in any class other than first block to receive a late jug.

Trinity Co-Student Affairs Director Dave Aberli explained why the late jug policy has changed in years past: “In the past five years, we’ve played around a little bit with the late jug policy simply because we wanted to maximize its effect with our students, and try to be fair with them at the same time.”

Aberli said they were seeing a big increase in students arriving late to school.  “In the past couple of years, it seems like kids were taking advantage of the fact that they were getting free lates every time,” he said, “and we had a spike in the number of people who were showing up late to school, especially among juniors and seniors who drove.”

Aberli made the point that it is not acceptable to be late to school any more than to be late for a job. He said, “We feel like our guys are getting lazy and not realizing the importance of being on time, and (the policy change) was a way to kind of send a message to everyone that it is really important to get to school on time.”

Aberli went on to say that this change has been a great success.  “It’s worked,” he said. “We’ve seen a dramatic decrease in the number of jugs so far this year.  This year we have approximately between 100 and 200 less jugs that we’ve had to write for guys being late to school.  We’ve seen a dramatic improvement.”

Aberli said in general the change is an attempt to help Trinity students improve their habits.  “We are trying to teach good habits, too,” he said, “because down the road when they get a job and they’re habitually late to work, they are not going to keep that job very long.”

Aberli provided some hope for change in the future regarding the late jug policy. He said, “It’s one of those things that we respond to the habits of our students, and if our students continue to show good habits in terms of getting to school on time, we might ease up the restrictions a little bit.  But for this year, it’s not going to change.  But if our students can demonstrate their willing commitment to meeting their responsibilities in terms of attendance, then I could see it changing in the future.”