punishing the whole class, AIBU to make a fuss?

[georgeousgeorge]

So, some bright spark in DS1's class (he's 8 / y4) decided to pour water all over the teachers chair, she sat on it. 35 boys are "in the frame" and have been shouted at by the HOY.

Unless someone confesses they all get a half hour detention.....with the view being that the HOY assumed they all knew about it and that someone is going to dob in the culprit.... However none of them seems to know who did it, my DS certainly doesn't have a clue.

This is teaching my very good DS precisely nothing, he's polite, helpful, good reports, and has never been in trouble.

However, I do support the school, it is generally good.

However for the first time I'm turning into THAT mum - AIBU to make a fuss?

"I don't think after a collective punishment this teacher will be respected more. Feared maybe, disliked certainly, but respected -- hardly."

I agree. We had many whole class detentions when I was at school and this was the response that most kids had. We were scared of the teacher, but didn't have any respect for someone who had punished us when we were innocent.

What advice are teachers given during their training about how to deal with incidents such as this? Are they given any strategies that the HOY could have employed? I like the method that Coolas described.

Piper - op says it was break time. It is, ime, very common to leave classrooms unlocked in primary schools. Infact, none of our classroom doors have locks on them at all.

Yes, it could be any child in the school, though, it is far more likely to be a child from that class ime.

For anyone interested in an update....

The punishment detention went ahead for the year group.

I spoke to the teacher this morning, and she confirmed (although not in so many words!) that they don't have a clue who did it...

Oh, the truth will emerge, believe me, and it will be someone nobody suspects; the other children and the staff will be on the look out for the culprit and eventually s/he will betray themselves.
I once spent a lunchtime hidden under my desk trying to catch the thief who was stealing children's lunches, but couldn't trap them. Then a popular, hard working, top of the class, teacher's child left, and the thefts stopped immediately and never started again. But they started at the school he went to, where he was caught. It was all a battle of wits to him.