Disciplining Students
What is "detention"?
Detention is a consequence that's routinely used in school systems up and down the land to correct negative behavior from a student. If the student is, say, tardy to class after a certain amount of times, student behaves inappropriately in a classroom setting, often times, there's a counselor, perhaps an assistant principal, who makes an intervention and assigns an hour of detention as a natural consequence.
What is "school suspension"?
School suspension is a more serious intervention that the school uses to correct a child's behavior. School suspension involves the child being removed from the school setting in a general sense. Sometimes, it involves removing the child and restricting him to the home environment i.e. where he is home suspended. In some schools now, they have an in-school suspension, where your child is removed from the regular setting, the regular classroom, and put in this specialized room, where there is either a teacher or a counselor and they're working on regular academic work and also working on correcting the child's behavior or misbehavior.
How will a school suspension affect my child?
School suspension really can impact your child's future if it is continuous. In other words, suspension is a remediation that's used by the school setting. The idea behind school suspension is to provide a wake-up call to both the child and the parent to say, "Something is not right here. Let's provide some space and some time for the student to correct the behaviour." Suspension always involves a conference with the principal or the assistant principal and, usually, with the parent so that they develop a plan so that when the youngster comes back after the suspension there are some new behaviours exhibited so the youngster won't violate whatever rule it was that got him suspended in the first place again.
What is a "school expulsion"?
A school expulsion is a system that the school uses to say, "There's been previous interventions by the school, school counsellors, teachers. It has not worked. There is a serious offense now, perhaps involving a weapon brought to the campus." So an expulsion means that the child is removed from the school district, usually for a year's time, and the individual expelled is responsible to attend another school district, because there is not a safe environment for him at that current school district, so they are removing him. And so expulsion results from a very serious offense.
What happens now that my child has been expelled from school?
If your child is expelled from school, there will be a formal meeting held, usually at the district office. At that time, it's imperative that you ask that question, because you will receive some guidance. Usually there is a contract that is established at that meeting, set parameters: your child has to attend some counseling, your child has to behave in a certain way, your child has to bring a report card back that says that he's behaving satisfactorily in a school setting. There's a contract. Usually after that contract expires -- usually after a year -- you come back to the expulsion committee, you present the evidence, then he would be welcomed back. Or if the contract hasn't been fulfilled, he may be expelled again for another year.
What is "truancy"?
Truancy is a term that's used by the school system to define a certain time that the youngster has not attended school and that time has not been authorized by the parent or by the school system. So a parent, for example, that takes a youngster on vacation and informs the school is not necessarily truant. However, a youngster that leaves the school, let's say mom drops him off at 8: o'clock at the beginning does not the child does not enter the school, goes to a friends house without permission then comes back to the school at the end and gets picked up by mom at the end of the day that youngster is truant; it's an unauthorized absence.
What are some of the punishments for truancy?
The punishments for truancy varies from district to district, state to state. In general, they are progressive. Some punishments involve after-school detention. If you miss five hours, for example, in a school day it could be five hours of after-school detention. In some districts you have a Saturday school, where you attend Saturday school and make up the work that you missed during the week. Plus, if there was another infraction in your truancy, where you went with another group of kids, there might be some counsellors there to re-educate you on how to say no, and that sort of thing. So it varies in terms of the consequences.
Does the teacher have the right to hit my child?
In most states in the United States, no. There are state laws. There are some states that don't address this, and that allow the teacher to not hit the child, not beat the child, but to spank the child. Usually that's done in the presence of an administrator. That is sort of dying out now in the United States, where we don't condone that.
What are the most common reasons a child gets into trouble at school?
The most common reason that a child gets into trouble at school is a misperception of what the rules are; a child not fully understanding. Sometimes it's an impulse where a youngster is frustrated, and he gets mad so he takes it out on another youngster. This could be physical and cause some physical harm; perhaps a fight. Sometimes it's the school not setting a proper expectation for the youngster; not being clear. There are no handbooks. For example, there are no orientations so youngsters are somewhat a little confused about what's appropriate. Oftentimes the teacher is very clear about appropriate behaviour in a classroom setting, but for some youngsters it is not clear what the appropriate behaviours are at recess or lunch time, so sometimes they get into trouble in those arenas.
