For some students at Triton High School, knowing that their parents were not getting called every time they were absent might be enough to keep them from showing up to school.

Turns out, that might be what is happening. Since the retirement of Registrar Betsy Lambe on March 28, there have been no attendance calls made.

As the registrar and attendance coordinator, Lambe was responsible for making these calls. After first period attendance was taken, Lambe would compile a list of students who were marked absent, but whose parents did not call the school to say their child would not be attending. She would then look through their records to find the contact phone number for those students, and call their parents.

“Mrs. Lambe retired and when she retired, she was the only person who knew how to make the calls, and without a secretary, we had to stop it,” said Triton Principal Tim Ruggere.

Lambe’s replacement, Julie Scarfo, was hired before Lambe’s planned departure. Scarfo started on March 30.

“We have hired the new secretary and she will be trained. We are hoping to start those calls this week,” Ruggere said.

Turns out, without these calls, students’ safety might be at risk.

“It can definitely pose a safety issue, especially if parents think that their students are at school, when in fact they are not,” Ruggere said.

These attendance calls also benefited students who did not skip school. For students who were wrongly marked absent, these calls were a way to identify and fix that.

Junior Ainsley Marsh was incorrectly marked absent, but did not know until report cards were published, due to the fact that her mother never got called.

“The fact that for six weeks, there have been no attendance calls going home is concerning, and frankly alarming,” Marsh’s mother, Kim Marsh said. “It is not a problem for me personally, because I know where my kids are, but I imagine if some kids had known, they would have taken advantage of the lack of oversight and responsibility of the school.”

While parents are alarmed at the lack of absentee calls, students are not concerned.

“I am glad they don’t call anymore, so I can be late all of the time without my parents knowing, or I can skip school,” said freshman Meghan Riccio.

Fellow freshman Kylie Hughes shares that view. “That is sick that they don’t call your parents. Then you can get away with skipping school,” Hughes said.

“I was wondering why my mom has not said anything about me being late a lot recently,” Hughes said.