To think DD's punishment from PE teacher was draconian?

[moonlightshadow1]

DD is in Year 10 and came home quite annoyed about a punishment she got in PE for something very minor in the first place. Her teacher made her get changed into her PE kit at lunchtime (without any tracksuit in the cold wet weather), and run laps around the football pitch for all but the last 15 minutes of the break (so she could eat), much of it whilst the boys were having football practice, who apparently found it quite funny. Is it overreacting to think this is a bit out of order? I might not have been surprised when I was at school but I can't help be a bit annoyed, seems a bit like it was intended to embarrass her and unnecessary.

Re the tracksuit...

Possibly because she would have spent 20mims changing into it?!

She wasn't embarrassed to running in front of buoys, she was embarrassed at having been seen being punished

Not letting her wear the tracksuit will have been because there is a limited time available at lunch and she also had to eat. Letting her change into and out of her tracksuit would eat up all the time available to run!

Also does anybody else think that with so many kids these days becoming obese or having issues with weight, that it's not the best idea to be using physical activity as a punishment. It should be encouraged not forced on people for bad behaviour.

You keep mentioning that she was made to "run around in front of boys"

I think you are being silly. If it's a comp, there will be boys at the school, who may see your DD.

You are also very much 100% believing your daughter's version of events, when teens are known to tell their parents an edited version of what happens at school

It is quite likely that she was being seriously annoying

Se my teens would be told ' well dont be lippy then and you wont have to to do it again'
None of this wet hand wringing because she had to run in a pe kit in front of other children.

Funny how these "lippy" kids are always described as good as heart, honest as a button and who get in with everyone else and other staff rave about...

I the idea that she could be rude and editing her role is unthinkable.

Or that she would have made less effort on the laps in a track suit as would have got too hot.

I wouldn't have a problem with her being made to do the gymnastics to make up for what she missed in her own time BUT a male PE teacher can't take a lone female pupil into the gym and ask her to 'mount the horse' so to speak. He seems to have thought of running as an alternative...

FrancisCrawford I haven't once criticised the boys as far as I can tell. They had a laugh and some of the comments were gendered, I never said sexual, I said it was an insensitive punishment.

She didn't like how she was told to sit as it was embarrassing in front of the class, but I told her she needed to deal with that as it was a fair enough punishment if she wouldn't sit still and be quiet when the teacher told her to. I don't think it's a very high opinion of herself to be a bit annoyed at having to sit on her own in silence cross-legged on the floor in front of her class, many kids probably would think the same. But yes, I never had an issue with that...

Whatever punishments we got at school, boys and/or girls would laugh at you or make comments.

If the PE kit is unsuitable to be seen in when boys are around, you should raise that with the school. I doubt it's any more revealing than what girls wear normally?
I think we are becoming far too precious about our kids today. They have to be saved from any kind of upset even if they deserve it.
God knows how some of them will cope with adult life.

Also you keep mentioning boyslike they are all sexual predators foaming at the mouth andbaying at the sight of a girl jogging in a tracksuit. They are children to..like your daughter.

I have noticed an increased tendency of kids to try to negotiate on sanctions, presumably because they get away with it with parents like this.

OnHold At my DDs school they're regularly told to just wear their tshirts and shorts/skirts for cross country running in winter, nothing to do with humiliation.

I'd have an issue if my DD was stood around in freezing weather but not if running and keeping warm her own fault if she chooses to walk at the back and natter with mates freezing instead.

AllTheWittyNamesAreGone: I teach loads of lippy kids who are all those things. No reason not to punish them for poor behaviour!

I don't think it's a very high opinion of herself to be a bit annoyed at having to sit on her own in silence cross-legged on the floor in front of her class

Well she should behave then. She brought that on herself.

I don't think it was an appropriate punishment for an otherwise well behaved pupil. I was anxious just walking down the corridor at that age, people laughing at me would've destroyed the last shred of confidence I had. I'm sure she's learnt her lesson but like you say, the sitting in front of the class probably would've achieved that anyway.

then told after the lesson she would have to do laps as she hadn't done the required PE the school would expect her to have done for the week.

Quite right. Had her prior conduct not necessitated her exclusion from the lesson, she would have performed the required amount of physical activity. However, she chose to be 'lippy' instead, so she had to be punished and still had to perform her physical activity in her time. That is the beauty of the lesson the teacher is trying (in vain it seems) to instill.

She chose to waste both her peers and her teacher's time. Her teacher demonstrated that it isn't nice to have one's time wasted. Also it appears the teacher missed out on her own break?

Also, do you not think it is sometimes not a little humiliating for teachers to be constantly interrupted and made to look like fools in front of a class full of 30 or so teens? I imagine running a class can be nerve-wracking sometimes. Teachers leave the profession in droves over such stress.

I think you ought to see it from the teachers point of view a bit more.

I'm surprised people can't see how it could be uncomfortable for a teenage girl, who hears boys making sexualised comments about girls regularly

That's criticizing boys, isn't it?

Running in a track suit today would have been ridiculously hot! And teenage girls often run in front of /with boys at athletics clubs, parkruns etc.

Your daughter should have been disciplined.... but not like this: humiliating a teenaged girl and putting them off running at one and the same time is just not constructive. I have found a Govt guide to discipline in schools and it says:

Good schools will have a range of disciplinary
measures clearly communicated to school staff, pupils and parents. These can include:
• A verbal reprimand.
• Extra work or repeating unsatisfactory work until it meets the required standard.
• The setting of written tasks as punishments, such as writing lines or an essay.
• Loss of privileges – for instance the loss of a prized responsibility or not being able
to participate in a non-uniform day (sometimes referred to as ‘mufti’ days).
• Missing break time.
• Detention including during lunch-time, after school and at weekends.
• School based community service or imposition of a task – such as picking up litter
or weeding school grounds; tidying a classroom; helping clear up the dining hall
after meal times; or removing graffiti.
• Regular reporting including early morning reporting; scheduled uniform and other
behaviour checks; or being placed “on report” for behaviour monitoring.
• In more extreme cases schools may use temporary or permanent exclusion.

The list is expressly not exclusive but it includes no hint of any kind of discipline that involves physical exertion, being made to wear particular clothes or being made to perform in front of others. I would be cross, OP, but would raise it sensitively by means of asking to see the school discipline policy and asking where this fits in and, in future, for the PE teacher to be educated about more appropriate disciplinary options. It seems likely the PE teacher just wasn't thinking this through but they need to have it brought to their attention so this doesn't happen to others. This could be a sign that the school needs to overhaul its discipline policy in general.

Parents like what? Parents who don't think that humiliating teenagers is the right way to punish them?

She has form, maybe today was the straw that broke the camels back. She'll continue having firm too if you direct your anger at the teacher and not her.

The boys were exercising. She was exercising. I just don't get what is embarrassing about that. Other than that she was embarrassed at being punished - and so she should be. Pupils who are 'lippy' don't just annoy the staff, they impede the learning of the rest of the class.

My 15 YO DD is right this minute at her athletics club running laps, surrounded by (mostly) boys - there are very few other older girls in the club. If you complain about it on the grounds of embarrassment you will look like a loon.

AllTheWittyNames except I haven't described her as perfect, I've from the outset said she "can be a bit lippy" in part to show I don't think she's perfect, said she deserved some kind of punishment for being cheeky (which she got in the lesson). I never said other staff "rave about her" either, just that she generally gets good reports, not that they make her out to be some Mother Theresa figure