Student Suspension and Detention

            Student punishment has always been one of the main issues in modern school systems today.  I personally have never been affected with punishments too severe to not just have been handled in the classroom, but I have many friends that have.  My main issue with punishments in school, is the system of out of school suspension.  I have talked to a few of my friends who have had out of school suspension, and it seems like the suspension just adds to the stress they had in the first place, and some admit that stress is the reason that they did what they did to get suspended.  This is why I believe that instead of having the kid stay out of school for a little, have the student sit down with their teachers and their administrators and just talk about what they can do to help the student, after all, that’s the main goal anyways.

            One other issue with the out of school suspension system, is that teachers are notified that one of their students has been suspended, but they are often not told for how long, and are never told why.  I think this is a major issue, because this is a huge inopportunity for teachers to help their students at a level beyond the standards.  Having this odd separation between the administrators, teachers and students makes the student feel more separated, which might cause more problems in the long run than making the situation more open from the beginning.

            If the administrators are worried about the safety of other students, I think that students should be taken out of their classes for a while, instead of school completely.  This way students will be at least doing something educational in this time, and it will not affect them in terms of their resumes when it comes to college.  Also, I don’t there should be a rubric, if you will, for suspension, but it should be on a complete case by case system.  Because again, the end goal is to help the student.  I feel like students are often sent home for very minor transgressions that would be better fixed in another way.

             One other problem I see with school punishments, is the lack of such for tardiness.  Students (including myself) are often late to school in the morning and are missing most of our first class, but the school never says anything.  Then out of nowhere you get detention on a Friday after school.  I think it would be a lot better if the administrators just talked to the student about why they aren’t getting there in time, and lay consequences down on a case by case basis.

           

            I see out of school suspension as a way of the school system just burying the problem, instead of fixing it.  When a student is out of school from an issue, it isn’t going to change that student as a person for when they come back, but just give them a rest to gather themselves.  This doesn’t mean that the problem is fixed, because from what I have seen, most the times the kids that get suspended don’t just get suspended once, it’s a reoccurring issue.