The clock that runs the bell system at school is wrong. It’s accurate to 4 decimal places, but still loses slightly more than a second every day. This pattern has consistent since I noticed it over a year ago, even on weekends and holidays. But occasionally, the clock jumps forward and overcompensates for the lost time. These haphazard corrections usually occur after vacation breaks or on late start days. The facts stop here, and the speculation begins. I refuse to believe that such a distinguished school cannot keep an accurate clock. The only explanation is... conspiracy! But seriously, there could be something going on here. I know that I have heavy confirmation bias when I say this, but I am confident that somehow, this marginal error in timekeeping has intentionally been left uncorrected because of something related to tardies. I’ll repeat the facts again: the ringing of the school bell occurs earlier and earlier every day. On certain days, it can ring a whole thirty seconds before NIST reports the correct time¹ at which it should ring. However, on certain days, this error is overcompensated for and the bell rings right on time, if not after the correct time. On days with high rates of tardies, a late coming of the bell can cut down on the number by offering a generous extra minute to get to classes. It just so happens that late start days² are the target of both these time corrections and an overt effort by the school to enforce tardy sweeps. I suppose it’s gray at the very worst, and ultimately, it is an effort to benefit students. I suppose then nothing needs to be done about this. What a useless conspiracy theory.