You most likely know Mr. Debolt as our eighth-grade English teacher, but he is more than just that. He also teaches high school journalism, which is an incredibly entertaining, fun, an education third-period class. In this class, though, there is one big rule: turn in your articles.

As you may know, the school’s news website, The Monitor, is run by Mr. Debolt and his students. This means that all of the articles we write for his class are written for the purpose of putting them on that website for all to read and enjoy. This is why writing and turning in the articles on time is so important.

Nobody wants to read about old news. Think about it — imagine two weeks after the Super Bowl is when you finally get the news about the winners. Or you just now read about the UMG and TikTok controversy, or Justin the Burger Bandit. People don’t want to read about something that has most likely already been covered elsewhere weeks later. It loses its momentum, and something has already taken its place as new and exciting.

This is why as your student writers for The Monitor and excellent students of Mr. DeBolt we get our articles in as fast as possible, so you are always kept up-to-date.

But what happens if an article isn’t turned in on time, or even worse, not turned in at all.

Here, in Mr. DebBolt’s class each quarter, we are given three to four articles to turn in for the whole quarter. Each of these articles is a whopping 25-30 points apiece. The correct way to look at this is to see an easy grade that is very much so mandatory. But some decide that the due date in Focus is only a suggestion and there is no need to live by the constraints of Mr. DeBolt and his article due dates.

This unfortunately is incorrect. Turning in your articles late should never be a habit one falls into. Worse yet, some students also decide that they are willing to not turn in the article at all. This is the wrong choice because no matter how much you think your grade will balance out to make up for the fact you are missing a 30-point assignment, it won’t. And you will be stuck with a low or possibly even failing grade.

On top of all this and possibly the most crucial part of this — by not turning in your articles, you are showing disrespect to Mr. DeBolt and to the rest of the students who did do their part for The Monitor. And the worst part about it, he’s not mad — he’s just disappointed.

Now you know the outcomes and repercussions that come with not turning in articles on time or turning them in at all. So please, take this advice and if you ever decide to join Mr. Debolt’s awesome journalism class, turn in your articles!