@RainySeptember
I think you are bringing up some very important points here. In the situation you are describing
- the boys planned this in advance and were deliberately being arrogant and difficult, you all knew this
- as you say, knowing them, you all knew that detention would be a win for them, cool reputation and all
- so instead you chose, calmly and in control, to have a response that wouldn't be laughed of or undermined, the embarrassing them to try to control the egos a bit
The things I am reading of your experience is that you were all professional, appropriate for the students concerned, you were attempting to discipline effectively and most of all, you were not out of control. All you describe is carefully thought through.
If that was my kid, I would apologise to the teachers involved as I'd be mortified by the attitude, I wouldn't have a problem with the shouting at them and I would be doing something about it myself at home too, as this is deliberate bad attitude and over confidence.
With the situation described in this post, the teacher may well have lost their temper and been out of control, that is a concern. The students were young and upset, shouting until someone cries or continuing when they do is too much.
Those for me are the differences. Your description describes well the different scenarios and the importance of staying in control, having all the information before acting and making good professional decisions that are appropriate and do involve discipline where needed, in as effective way as possible. I am concerned by the parts where the account of the events in the other situation seem to have possibly stepped away from that level of staying in control, appropriate response, knowledge, effective discipline, not causing distress and losing professionalism.
Four boys who are always always always a right pain in the arse, and told everyone in advance that they would be late because the bus 'wouldn't dare' go without them. We were forty minutes late leaving, hit rush hour traffic, had complaints from parents waiting at the other end. The only way to punish them was to shout, especially as their cool image was the most important thing to them. What else could we do? A stern word didn't work with those pupils because they just didn't care, about staff or anyone else. A detention next week? They'd swagger onto the bus wearing it like a badge of honour.