WPCNR SCHOOL DAYS. April 2, 2006: White Plains High School Students are sooooooo social! So social they are not making it to classes on time according to a letter sent to high schoolers’ parents.

According to the communication from Principal Ivan Toper distributed Friday, parents have been advised that students at the 2,200 student low-rise complex that sprawls in an endless maze of hallways on the former JC Penney estate in White Plains, just are not making it into classes before the bell rings. Being late to class has become routine and the Principal has had enough.

Toper’s letter  states that “teachers have volunteered to be a presence in the hallways between classes to encourage students to move to their next class.” The letter reports House administrators recently met with each of the four grades to emphasize the importance of arriving to class on time as well as consequences for being tardy that will now be in effect.

The D-word.

Mr. Toper’s communication to parents advise that punishments for being late to class could include “afternoon detentions, Saturday detentions and in-school suspensions for students with multiple infractions.”

Principal Toper reports a committee has been formed “to review our (attendance) policies and procedures in an effort to ensure they are reasonable, fair, effective and consistent. I ask that you (parents) do whatever you can do at home to encourage your child to not only arrive at school on time in the morning, but to arrive on time to each and every class throughout the day.”

Hall Jams

From WPCNR observation, routine daily drop-off stop and go traffic of parents delivering their teens off to start the day and at the south and north entrances of the school contribute to tardiness in the mornings.

In-between classes, the five-minute break is barely enough time when you have to go from the south end to the north end of the building for your next class. The small halls and  sadistic scheduling that has you go from one end of the building to the other on the short break in-between classes keeps White Plains teens in shape, but not fleet of foot enough to avoid the distractions in the halls: cellphone conversations, the heavy crush of bodies in narrow hallways, sort of like Main Street on rush hour mornings in White Plains.