Fall River High School Students To Get Wakeup Calls
FALL RIVER (CBS) – Chronically late and absent students at Durfee High School are about to get a wakeup call.
Actually, several early morning wakeup calls.
Principal Paul Marshall told WBZ-TV the school department's automated calling system would begin dialing students who are considered chronically tardy or absent at 6:15 a.m., starting this week.
The school says a student is a chronic offender if they're absent or late five or more times in a 45-day term. Marshall says that's about 6 percent of the school's 2,200 students.
He hopes to push the school's underachieving 88-percent attendance rate to around 95-percent.
WBZ-TV's Ken MacLeod reports.
He also has a strong message for critics.
"It's life or death, really, because if you don't have an education in today's world, you're not going to be able to compete."
Marshall said the calls are a positive way to hold kids and parents accountable, rather than a cycle of suspensions and detentions that may further discourage students from attending.
