School seeks stricter detention enforcement
One of the possible consequences of a student failing to serve a detention could be spending some time in ISS (in school suspension) located in room B102.
Just like there are reward systems in school, there are also penalty systems. One of these penalty systems comes in the form of detention, which is assigned to students who disrupt the normal flow of school life.
“Students can receive detentions for anything that violates the student code of conduct,” associate principal Ashley Rainwater said.
Although detentions are meant to be an incentive to follow school rules, some students don’t serve them.
“I think students have started to perceive that if they get a detention that they don’t have to serve it and there’s not going to be any consequences,” detention manager Julie Anderson said. “So the administration really wants to reinforce that if you’re assigned a detention you need to serve that detention.”
Even though it is still early in the school year, Anderson wants to prevent an accumulation of missed detentions for students.
“This year so far there’s been quite a few missed detentions and so already it’s kind of starting,” Anderson said. “We don’t want students to have escalated consequences. In the past last year, there were students who did not serve detentions last year so we want to try to avoid that.”
A build up of missed detentions can lead to more serious repercussions.
I think students have started to perceive that if they get a detention that they don’t have to serve it and there’s not going to be any consequences
— detention manager Julie Anderson
“If you don’t show up for a detention, depending on the circumstances, you might be allowed to reschedule that detention,” Anderson said. “If you reschedule and you miss it again, then the consequences escalate. It’ll depend on the AP that you have but in most situations if it’s a one hour detention it’ll go to a three hour detention. If you don’t serve that, it could escalate to Saturday School, ISS, it just depends on reasons for missing the detentions and/or where you started in the chain.”
Rainwater stresses the importance of rescheduling a detention if there is a conflict.
“If student behavior does not improve, a meeting will be held with the student, teachers and parents to determine the appropriate support needed,”associate principal Ashley Rainwater said. “If for some reason a student cannot serve their detention, it is important that they reschedule with an AP secretary.”
Administration understands that some students have outlying factors as to why they did not serve a detention.
“Sometimes they may have forgotten like ‘Oh goodness I didn’t know I had a detention’ kind of thing,” Anderson said. “Some students have work, some students have tutorials, things of that nature and that’s why we always want to make sure to listen to other reasoning behind missing the detention.”
Regardless, Anderson emphasizes the importance in communication and honesty in respect to detentions.
“We always want to listen to the reason and then figure out why they were absent and give them an opportunity to make up that detention,” Anderson said. “But if they again miss the detention then it’s kind of like there must be a blatant disregard for the detention almost and so the consequences will escalate.”
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