Just a Thought*

* I stole this title from my good friend Tony Celi. It was originally the title of his impressive stream-of-consciousness speech. I did it without realizing, however. Just wanted to put this in so he doesn't comment all irate-like and then come after me with his sword or lighter.

In previous posts I have addressed the fact that I wish to be a journalist. I'm sure many of you figured, "Good for you," and moved on. But some of my readers might have figured something a little more along the lines of, "He says he wants to be a journalist but all he's ever journaled is this online journal. I scoff at his proposed journalizing skills, so eloquently spoken of in this journal." To you I say, "Get a thesaurus and/or psychological help." But I also grudgingly admit that you are indeed right. So, to prove my journalist mettle, I will make this special edition small post, composed of this message and the one above it, and my editorial column for the now-defunct Holyoke Catholic school newspaper. Now, without further ado, here is my column, entitled :


Just a Thought
Richard Sugrue


As this is the first printing of the Gael Gazette in about twelve years, I thought I’d explain this editorial column. Titled "Just a Thought," as one can clearly see by the bold print above the text, it will cover one topic per edition of the paper. One topic, one issue which the current chief editor finds to be dampening spirits, increasing frustration, and/or breeding resentment. Something that seems to be affecting the school in a negative way and some possible ways to remedy the situation. Alas, this will be my first and last contribution to this column as chief editor, so I’ll try to make it a good one. And I’d like to thank all my loyal readers for your . . . um . . . days of support.

I left for school several weeks ago around 7:20. It was overcast, so, being the considerate driver I am, I turned my lights on. I arrived at school at 7:32, pulled into my spot, and being the idiot that I am, left my lights on. Needless to say, by dismissal the battery of my car was drained. My friend Will Murray and I attempted to jump it, but someone (who will remain nameless) attached the negative end of the cable to the positive node on my battery, and vice versa. My car nearly exploded, the cables melted, and Will and I received burn scars by which we can now remember the event fondly. Crisis was averted by the dedicated HCHS maintenance staff (thanks again, guys) but my car was down for the count. Now there was but one car for my family (until mine was fixed). The next morning I awoke intending to get to school on time. However, as the poet Burns says, "the best laid plans of mice and men gang aft agley." And that morning my best laid plans ganged about as agley as they could have ganged. I would have had to leave extra early to get my dad to work and then my brother and I to school, but my robust padre decided he didn’t need a lift because he would ride a bike to work. So I went about my usual schedule. When I was finally ready to leave, after several other mishaps, it turned out that my bike was missing, my brother’s was broken, and my father’s needed air in its tires. I thus had to give my dad a ride to work in Holyoke and then drive back through South Hadley to Granby. To make matters worse, my brother decided he was too sick to go to school, so I stopped at my house on the way in to drop him off. I rushed to my destinations, usually obeying the speed limits, and got to school by 7:52. I hurried from my car and got to the door quickly, but it was too late; announcements had started. I was tardy. Now, because I was 2 minutes late to school I had a half hour detention which interfered with my after school obligations. I had a detention because of a new rule which I believe represents everything that has gone wrong with Catholic in the past year.

It used to be that a student could be tardy seven excused times per year. That’s one time a quarter with an extra three; almost 4 a semester; or one every 23 days. That was cutting it close, but it was fair. Now we students are limited to three. That’s one a quarter with an extra negative one; less than 2 a semester; or one tardy every 60 days! I wouldn’t have realized the extent of the hassle and injustice of this were I not a senior. With jobs, more schoolwork, extracurricular activities, plus being responsible in many cases for giving others rides, seniors and juniors are hard pressed to go a full quarter without being late once. And subsequent detentions for being late from having a busy schedule make our schedules even busier. Wiggy, huh?

So I guess my points are these:

1) Students are too busy to be given only three tardies without detentions. Tardiness is one of the least tolerated offenses, but the only one that is almost always the result of an accident or bad luck.
2) If students get a ride to school from another student, you can’t blame the passengers for the driver getting there late. However, if students do car pool, you can’t rightly blame the driver, perhaps the passengers are the reason he or she is late. Also, if a student gets a ride from a parent, chances are the parent’s to blame for being late.
3) Detentions make full schedules fuller. (Now, I’m not ragging on detentions themselves. At the risk of losing a fan base, I’ll go on record as saying I like the new detentions. Mrs. Sullivan and Mrs. Layzer are doing a bang up job. But that ain’t the issue here.)
4) Speaking with several students who were penalized for being late, I realized that most of them were only a few minutes late. Perhaps a way around this would be to change the perception of tardy from 2 minutes late to 20 minutes late.
5) Some may argue that parents were just phoning in excuses for their kids for being late, even if they weren’t valid, so the policy had to be changed. But when you get right down to it, so what? It’s not like the kids were doing anything that wrong. They didn’t deviously decide to be 5 minutes late one day and purposely were tardy. No. They were genuinely late for silly reasons is all. And in some cases, like mine, they were tardy for decent reasons.

This late rule is neither sensible nor compassionate, and shows how little the new administration seems to care about the lives of the students. It reflects a disturbing trend at Catholic and it needs to change. But that’s just a thought.