I think part of the problem is to do with primary schools and parenting.
An 11 year old should be responsible and able enough to take responsibility for having the right equipment and books for their lessons.
The trouble is that parents have become so infantilising that they don't work on getting their child to that basic point before they get to high school and primary schools are frankly terrified of over bearing parents who complain about the slightest thing.
Look at the threads on walking to school and how many parents say their children can't get themselves up, dressed, do their own teeth and make themselves breakfast by age 9. And then say the school are right not to let 9 year olds walk home 300 ms by themselves when there's no road 'because rules and safeguarding'.
Look at the concerns about the sheer number of children going into reception who aren't yet potty trained. This number is growing and isn't related to SEN numbers.
Meanwhile it's normal for kids in Europe to be walking to school by themselves by age 6.
It means you get a bunch of kids and parents who have the shock of their lives when the expectations are laid out before them in this way. Yet the next family don't see the same issue in terms of this expectation.
The high school don't have the time nor money to be dealing with kids who don't have their basic stuff. It's disruptive to the class as a whole if you have a kid who say "miss I don't have a pen"
The OP goes on about this discipline being at "the expense of humanity". That says it all really. It's not an unreasonable expectation for 11 year olds to be able to manage their property. That's not against their humanity! It's expecting kids to be responsible in a way that's appropriate for the setting and situation.
How are these kids going to manage day to day in life when they are older? This is basic stuff. It's not an unreasonable level of responsibility.
One of the comments on this thread is precisely about how immature the current cohort of yr7 is. And the issue is getting worse imho.
Parents do not want their kids to develop life skills and abilities. They are facilitating it. And it's having a massive impact.
The schools then get blamed as the cause of poor mental health because of their 'draconian' regimes.
I'm not fully buying into this concept of it being Draconian to expect kids to have their stuff when they should. It's parents who have failed to work on things like teaching their kids to tie show laces or look after their school jumper without losing it whilst at primary.
If the kids can't cope with some of this stuff by this age, what's gone wrong. They aren't coping, but how is the school supposed to manage so many kids who haven't got the right kid for PE? Or have forgotten their calculator for maths? They can't get on with teaching in that situation. And it's unfair on the kids who have managed it. The school haven't been responsible for these kids prior to this point so how can they be responsible for this inability? If it's not the school who have been responsible for the past eleven years, where else must we look?
Having spent enough time helping out in DSs primary and hearing the demands of some of the parents Im not surprised. One parent said they didn't think a certain book was appropriate because it was scaring their child in yr2. It was a factual book about the weather which was completely age appropriate. Another said they didn't think they should be learning about the great fire of London as it was too serious and adult. There a whole pile more examples that have really made me roll my eyes and think wtaf.
I dunno. I am not sure what else schools are supposed to do. If they took a much softer line, then increased then increased the expectation over the first half term parents would still complain about it being too harsh and unfair that they'd done that.
There are far too many parents that don't expect their kids to do things like help out at home or learn to do their own washing by the time they are 16. It's part of the same problem.