S.T.I.N.K protest happening countywide to cut down on tardiness
Posters of the protest hung around the school to inform students of the upcoming demonstration. Photo by Lorenzo Salas.
Due to an increase of students arriving late to school and not showing up to class on time, the school board has decided to implement a new strategy in order to cut back on the lateness. This has led the county to create the “School Tardiness Ideally Not Kontinued,” protest, which will be held on the first of April. The purpose of this event is to cut back on tardiness in Loudoun County.
“We really think demonstrating against tardiness is the way to go. It is a rising issue that needs to be addressed and we believe in taking a stand against it,” said superintendent Oscar Byers. “By having this protest we believe that this will lead to positive change.”
Local delinquent Hobbie Hoffman said, “Hell yeah man! I love protesting, I can’t wait for this protest. I’m sure happy that they made this protest on a school day. More people will want to show up as opposed to others. The only thing I have against this is I have no idea what we are protesting.”
This protest being countywide has led to multiple people questioning the legitimacy of the protest. Seven year old Lucas Miller at Catoctin Elementary said, “I don’t understand why we are protesting, why don’t we just go to class?”
This led Byers to release a public response: “The purpose of this protest is to take a stand against the injustice of being tardy. If we don’t protest, students will feel more inclined to show up to school tardy,” said Byers. “As students in America, it is our responsibility to protest and it is our right, we must stand against this injustice otherwise tardiness wins.”
The event is going to be on April 1st and will last from 9:15 till 4:03. However, approximately one month before, the county test ran the trial at Loudoun County High School. The results promised success as the statistics for tardy students dropped 90%. After the protest many students went from showing up to class late with Chick Fil A to showing up to class early and on time with an apple for their teacher. Martha Bryant said, “I love school! I love to learn, I never would have thought that I would love going to school but thank you Loudoun County! I love school now. I strongly believe that the school board has the right idea and we need more of those,” said Byant.
The protest has also seemed to have garnered the attention of teachers as they wholeheartedly support the protest. For example, Sociology, which had the highest number of tardy students, has dropped its tardiness down to zero. The sociology teacher responded about the protest. “I went into teaching with the idea of inspiring students and helping shape them into young responsible citizens. However, seeing the state of the current generation, I see that won’t happen,” said Mr. Stuart. “This protest, however, gives me hope because if students have the illusion of free will, they might feel inclined to actually make change.”
Lorenzo Salas was born in Winchester while the rest of his family was born in Chile. His favorite pastimes
include playing video games, reading graphic...
