Classes at LaGuardia High School start at 8:00 a.m. Bronx Science starts at 8:05. Stuyvesant starts at 8:00 a.m. Even though the NYC iSchool starts at 8:59, some students still arrive late to school. Like many other students, the iSchool students have situations in which they arrive tardy to school due to dealing with train delays, having a rough morning or waking up late and not planning accordingly.

At the iSchool, students must swipe their ID cards no later than 8:59 a.m. If by any chance, students swipe in at exactly 9:00 am, they will be counted late and will not be able to go out for lunch that same day. Students who experience this are usually frustrated with the fact that they almost made it on time but not quite.

Zoe Justiniano, a sophomore at the iSchool, says she “can’t even count” the amount of times she has been late so far this year. Nonetheless, she states that it’s usually a result of train delays. She stated, “I’ve been late all of last week and two days from this week because the A train was very delayed” the day after the snow storm that took place in New York on March 14. Even blizzards and other storms can cause the MTA trains to slow down or completely stop their travel. 

In addition, moving the time in which class starts by about five minutes would be beneficial for Zoe because “if it were not nine o’clock, I would probably not arrive late all of this week and last week,” she explained. “No one would wake up and think ‘let me sleep for another thirty minutes.’”

Similarly, Hailey Anderson, another sophomore at the iSchool, has been late to school usually because of train delays. She has had several occurrences in which she swiped her ID at the entrance at exactly nine o’clock as she stated, “the person in front of me would swipe at 8:59 and by the time I swipe, it becomes nine already.” This is such a frustrating feeling for many students like Hailey because just a single minute is the difference between going out for lunch or having to stay inside.

On the contrary, Ms. Calvo, one of the Spanish teachers at the iSchool, believes that the time we are given to arrive to school is a fair time. However, she states, “students should not get penalized if they get here at 9.”

Unlike Zoe, Ms. Calvo believes that if the time school starts is moved up from 8:59 to 9:05, students will think they have more time than they actually have.

As a teacher, “it’s not completely distracting when students arrive late to class but I would have to stop the lesson to give directions to the late student on what we’re working on,” said Ms. Calvo. She claims that the students around do not usually get distracted but sometimes, class can get delayed due to the need for clarification.

Overall, there is a lot of debate on whether the time the iSchool starts is fair. Students and teachers all have different experiences when it comes to their timing and travel to school. For now, students and staff will have to make sure they wake up early enough and try to plan their time as well as possible to be upstairs in class at 8:59 a.m.