A few years ago, ʻIlima Intermediate teacher Sarah Milianta-Laffin was surprised to see a student with previously good attendance start showing up to class late and without her uniform at the end of the year.
The teen earned enough tardy slips in the final weeks of school to be excluded from her eighth-grade promotion ceremony — a consequence that Milianta-Laffin believes the student was deliberately seeking.
ʻIlima Intermediate requires students to pay their meal balances, return library books and clear all other financial obligations before participating in celebratory end-of-year…
