The Upper School penalizes lateness, missed lunch duties and other infractions with detention or a loss of student privileges. Detentions take place after school for one hour and can cause many students to miss or be late to a sports practice or arrive home at a later time.
This system is a controversial topic for the students of GA. It could use some changes to improve the system and make it fair to those who live farther and face more difficulties with arriving at school on time.
“I drive my two younger siblings to school everyday,” Noelle Petersohn ‘26 said. “I cannot control if they are late or not and it will sometimes result in me getting late due to my younger siblings.”
The lateness penalty takes place even when you arrive at 8:01 for most students, but some advisors can be more lenient with this rule, which causes an imbalance in penalties.
“I think there should be more of a grace period with latenesses,” Rosie Cassidy ‘26 said. “They need to be more lenient and getting to school at 8:05 shouldn’t be seen as such a big deal.”
Many GA students struggle with getting latenesses due to traffic in the morning. The traffic on Morris Road and the highways leading to GA are usually jam-packed.
“Getting to GA on time is a struggle for me. Everyday I leave my house at the same time, and some days I could get to school at 7:45 while other days 8:00 due to traffic,”Ellin Wang ‘26 said, “I can’t make traffic go away and getting late because of it is something I don’t agree with,” Ellin Wang ‘26 said.
Students that live far away tend to face more penalties due to the inconsistency of the traffic in the morning. This long distance from GA can cause it to be difficult to plan when to leave because each day is different.
“I think being late should not always be a valid reason for a detention,” Clara Shafer ‘26 said. “I live 40 minutes away from GA and the traffic can be really bad at times. If I am two minutes late I don’t think it is fair for me to deserve a detention.”
Another way students can earn detentions at Germantown Academy is by missing lunch duty. Lunch duty is when advisories clean up after lunch in the Common Room and Dining Room. These advisories perform lunch duty for one or two weeks per year.
“I recently missed a lunch duty accidentally. I completely forgot that I had it and was eating lunch with my friends,”Charlotte Brazer ‘26 said, “Missing a lunch duty accidentally is very scary because it ends up with a detention.”
Additionally, even if someone is absent they need a substitute, and if they fail to find one, a detention ensues. We believe that missing lunch duty for a valid reason should be straight up excused. Some students get many detentions each year due to these rules.
Another action that can result in a detention is forgetting your keycard. Many students forget their keycard at home and have to get another one.
“I think if you forget your keycard you should be able to get a new one instead of getting a detention,” Devon Geist ‘26 said. “There should be multiple spots to get a new one, and the result should not be a detention.”
Out of all the GA students interviewed, none said that they liked the rules regarding detention. Many think these are taken too seriously and need to be more lenient. This reaction from the students means that the GA disciplinary system is due for a change, more leniency with punishments and consistency all around the school is a need for the student body to be penalized properly.