Some kids are getting written up more than once for the same thing with little to no consequences for their actions. After several years of having lunch detentions and in-school suspensions are the punishments we have no longer working?
“The majority is the 80/20 rule. 20% of the population are the ones who need help, a lot are trying to work with them to kind of solve the problem. If you’re just continually giving a consequence that doesn’t work sometimes it’s not about the consequence but solving the problem with what’s causing the behavior. ” Mr. Ryan Kennnah, Dean of Students, said.
The statements he said sounded like the punishments we have are not working for many students and harsh punishments may not be the best course of action in the future. Instead of punishing students for the same actions like disrespecting teachers, trying to fix the relationship between the teacher and the students would help the students more compared to giving them detention.
“This year definitely more kids are getting written up. Okay, so, I think it’s [the discipline] actually really good. For hateful comments don’t get them suspended but, if it’s actually hurtful it depends.” Ariel Steele, 6th grader said.
“Instead of just giving them detentions sometimes it’s time to problem-solve. Like if a student’s having an issue in the hallways we might put them on more of a hall pass restriction, so they’re not just roaming around the halls all the time or, we thought of things like a more of a structured day where we take away their free time so it’s kind of working on the areas,” Mr. Kennah stated.
“It seems like this time of the year there are more write ups. It seems like in the last month or so there’s been an[write up] increase. We want behaviors to be better than they are. I’m going to be meeting up with the classes to address the issues I’ve been seeing. There have definitely been some things in the cafeteria and the hallway that I’m not very happy with.” Mr Griffith, principal, said.
Giving students detention for hall pass abuse and issues similar to that might not be the best punishment for some students. Instead, making more structured days or less time allowed in the hallways would be better for students.
