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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

School Detention

60 replies

Mumof5and3 · 27/10/2015 22:00

DD has started at a new school. I have recently discovered that during detention children stand for fifteen minutes facing the wall. AIBU to consider this to be Abuse.

OP posts:
winewolfhowls · 27/10/2015 22:08

Don't get detention. No problems

saucony · 27/10/2015 22:09

How old is she?

ilovesooty · 27/10/2015 22:11

Where did the information come from?

SawdustInMyHair · 27/10/2015 22:11

YABU to consider it abuse, but it seems a bit odd.

minimalist000001 · 27/10/2015 22:11

That's very odd. You'd think they could do something useful at least like litter pick or scrub floors

PaulAnkaTheDog · 27/10/2015 22:12

Why is it abuse?

NothingNewUnderTheSun · 27/10/2015 22:12

You do know what abuse is right?

ReadtheSmallPrint · 27/10/2015 22:15

In my school they'd be scraping chewing gum off the underside of desks. I know which I'd have preferred at that age....

This has to be a wind-up, surely?

Original poster
Mumof5and3 · 27/10/2015 22:17

It's the facing the wall bit I have a problem with. I find that demeaning and therefore abusive. She is 9

OP posts:
saucony · 27/10/2015 22:18

It's not abusive but not the most conducive form of punishment IMO.

Jaxsbum · 27/10/2015 22:18

what was the detention for?

Wolfiefan · 27/10/2015 22:19

Maybe they face the wall as a means to stop them misbehaving in detention.
TBH if my child misbehaved enough to get detention at that age I would worry about their behaviour rather than what they'd be doing in the detention.

BertrandRussell · 27/10/2015 22:22

Can't see a problem.

StarkyTheDirewolf · 27/10/2015 22:24

Standing "on the wall" for naughtiness was the punishment when I was at school. It's not abuse.

MoreCrackThanHarlem · 27/10/2015 22:26

What was the detention given for?
I wouldn't label it as abusive but as a consequence for poor behaviour it is pointless, has no restorative features and is humiliating.

Original poster
Mumof5and3 · 27/10/2015 22:27

wolfiefan I'm interested to know what behaviour you would consider bad enough to deserve detention.

OP posts:
Usernamegone · 27/10/2015 22:27

When I was at primary school in the 80's if you were naughty during class the teacher would make you face the wall for 5-10 minutes.

Because it was boring everyone learnt to not be naughty!

steppemum · 27/10/2015 22:27

never heard of detention for 9 year olds. It is usually a secondary school thing.

I think I would be more concerned about why she had a detention in her first few weeks at a new school.
If there is an issue, then at 9 the punishment should be constructive in some way helping her to change that behaviour.

If the detention is for a minor issue, then you have a bigger problem than what they do while in there, the school sounds mad.

WorraLiberty · 27/10/2015 22:28

If she's only 9 then it's more like being kept in at playtime than a proper detention, surely?

caravanista13 · 27/10/2015 22:28

It's not abuse exactly but it is humiliating. I'd be worried about a school that felt humiliation was an acceptable form of discipline.

MoreCrackThanHarlem · 27/10/2015 22:28

I try to make consequences related to the behaviour- eg poor behaviour at playtime-staying with an adult on the playground, talking in class and disrupting learning- 10 minutes of jobs for the teacher at break.

Wolfiefan · 27/10/2015 22:29

My youngest isn't this age yet. My eldest is at secondary and had one DT for not meeting a deadline.
Is this a case of a pupil wasting the time of a teacher? So their time is wasted in return.
Constant talking? So they have to spend 15 minutes quiet.
You haven't said why it was set. I'm guessing that's because you feel it was unjustified.

morecoffeethanhuman · 27/10/2015 22:30

I remember that as the main punishment when I was in school, you faced the wall so your friends couldn't just sit with you.
YABU its a normal punishment and in no way abuse!

Grilledaubergines · 27/10/2015 22:30

It's a detention. It's not meant to be fun. Can't see a problem. Please don't chuck "abuse" out there, it's not.

Your child has done something giving rise to punishment. If she hated the experience of detention, it gives her food for thought and hopefully will stop her repeating her misdemeanour.

MoreCrackThanHarlem · 27/10/2015 22:32

In my view talking through the poor behaviour and its consequences has more of an impact than this kind of pointless punishment- who did I upset, how did I feel afterwards, what could I have done differently etc.

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