This story was updated to correct a quote. The Forest Scout regrets the error.

As the dean’s office puts more focus on absences this year, there is an increase in those annoying pink slips circulating through classes.

Deans Jonathan Silver and Laura Clegg said they understand the frustration with the annoying pink slips, but it’s part of an effort to make sure students are in class. 

“Every day, we get an account of how many pink slips go out, and we love to see our number really low. The main reason kids get pink slips is because their parents did not call them out or they did not sign out when they left the building,” Clegg said. “Students should have a parent enter it in PowerSchool and sign out with Mrs. Patrice in the Commons when leaving, and sign back in upon their return.”

However, Clegg also explained that some of the pink slips are errors because of confusion between students and teachers, such as teachers accidentally marking a kid absent if they walk in late and attendance has already been taken.  

Many students remain annoyed.

“It’s aggressive and some people get embarrassed when teachers give you a pink sheet in front of the whole class,” junior Finley Karr said. 

Junior Jack Lamberti is also frustrated with the attendance policy, which was updated this year after an increase in absences last year.

“I don’t like the attendance policy. They should give us more leeway. They should change the three tardies to five, or [provide] a warning, and instead of showing the pink slip to the whole class, they should email it.”

Regarding the frustration over pink slips, Silver said the deans get frustrated too. 

“We have some students who take their pink slips and crumble them up and throw them away, and then we don’t know that it was a mistake and they get assigned detention. Then  we hear from parents from the kids like, ‘Why did I get detention?’ Well, you had a pink slip and did not clear it.’Obviously, we would clear it because it should not have been there, but it just creates extra work on everyone’s end.”

Many schools across the country are struggling with absenteeism. 

“Our school was number one in all the surrounding schools [for high attendance], we have the fewest amount of absent students of any school around,” Clegg said. “They call it Chronic Absenteeism, and we are at like 10%, Stevenson was like 30%, and a lot of other schools are at like 25-35% absenteeism.” 

Other students are upset that some tardies count as absences.

“Our policy is if you are 10 or more minutes late, it’s an absence. Some kids don’t understand that, ‘Like I was in class,’ but the policy is not that we want you to be late, but if you are less than ten minutes late, you still get most of the class, we just gotta cut it off somewhere,” Silver said. 

Clegg also provided insight from the counselors’ perspectives. 

“They get what’s called a D-F list. Meaning, kids that are getting Ds and Fs in their classes. I don’t know the number but it was significantly smaller like crazy low Ds and Fs, and I really do believe it’s because students are in their classes.”

“I think that the D-F list is a good indication that not only do we have kids here more often, but it’s actually impacting their grades in a positive manner.” 

Clegg stresses that attendance matters because “you would not have missed that if you were not in class. You would not have heard that question and now it’s on the test and you’re like ’oh yeah, I remember what so and so said and I remember the answer.’ Like those are things that you can’t recreate when you are at home.”