Director of Education, Dominique McCartney-Russell recently addressed the problem of students being late for school.

According to McCartney-Russell tardiness is most prevalent at the primary school level. She said, “when you see numbers in the thousands, in terms of tardiness, you know that that’s a concern.”

The education director also spoke about the disadvantages of habitual lateness to the children. “Sometimes you see children at 10 am sauntering in to school and we’ve had our SROs (School Resource Officers)led by Superintendent Ferguson who have actually gone into businesses because in some instances children were either getting breakfast or they were obtaining a haircut. In fact we found a site where about twenty children were awaiting haircuts.”

McCartney-Russell also explained how student tardiness creates a challenge for teachers. She said, “if a child is not on time it means that either that teacher has to repeat what she has taught or slows down that content which means that the other children suffer.”

To address the issue, education officials are in talks with businesses to ban students during school hours.