AIBU Fuming about face mask

[yan79]

Hi,
I don’t know if I’m just being a little sensitive but my 13 yo son returned to school on Monday after half term and has received a 1 hour after school detention for forgetting his face mask. I’m livid! It seems quite a punishment for something that isn’t a bad behaviour or intentional. Gosh, I forget my mask on a weekly basis and have to go back to the car to fetch it etc.
They don’t have to wear a mask in class (only on the corridors) he’s only ever forgotten his mask once since we started wearing them (he was in school the entire lockdown as I’m a NHS worker)
and school have a box of Masks for students that do forget them so he did wear one that day. It wasn’t even the teacher who gave out the detention, it was student services where he went when he realised he’d forgotten his mask and they provided him with one.
He’s a good lad and never really causes any commotion or trouble but he’s quite angry about this detention too. I’m tempted to call school and speak to somebody but I don’t know if I’m just being a little OTT and he deserves the detention and we should just ‘suck it up’

I would reply back that actually he hadn't forgotten just that this had broke and rather than wear a broken one which would fit incorrectly if he bodged it, he did the right thing and went and asked for a new one , which you would happily pay for but feel a 1 hr detention is not appropriate in this case

I'm so sorry OP that so many people have ignored your update on what awful news your son had to contend with that morning. Looking at your post of the message about the detention I'd go back to the Hoy and say that he DID have a mask with him but it broke so to give a detention in these circumstances would be OTT even before the horrible circumstances in which he went to school that morning.

for you all

@Londonmummy66

I'm so sorry OP that so many people have ignored your update on what awful news your son had to contend with that morning. Looking at your post of the message about the detention I'd go back to the Hoy and say that he DID have a mask with him but it broke so to give a detention in these circumstances would be OTT even before the horrible circumstances in which he went to school that morning.

for you all

Thank you...it was my partner and I’d friend but my son knew him too abs has heard what had happened x

So it's not even a first offence? It's the second time he's forgotten his mask? I'm sorry for what else happened that morning but school weren't aware of it and I still stand by what I said earlier in the thread.

If this is a first or rare infringement then the penalty is not arguably not proportional and fair. However it depends on the reasons for tough penalties for instance would be reasonable deterrent if mask wearing is evaded by most constantly despite being required making a mockery of serious potentially deadly health and safety matters.

It's harsh, but for my kids I put a few spare masks in a ziplock bag and they keep them in their school bags. Sometimes the strings break, sometimes they get a bit yucky during the day.

Yes, masks suck, but it's the world we live in at the moment and they are important.

Scary times to live in when a child is punished for forgetting to cover thier own face up once in school.

Seems a bit harsh, especially considering how he realised and went to obtain one from school rather than just ignoring it and hoping he'd get away with it. IMO they shouldn't be wearing them in schools anyway.

That's really harsh. Were pupils and parents/carers told in advance that masks would be treated like uniform in the way of punishments for not having them?

I was in school this afternoon for a meeting and whilst I waited, five minutes, 7 pupils came to the office asking for a mask. The receptionist just handed one over (some fabric school branded ones, funded by the PTA, some disposable ones) and made a joke to me about how she'd have been able to retire early if they sold them instead of giving them away.

Schools seem to be like prisons, or detention centres these days, with all their very many stupid rules in process.

I would follow it up with the school too. a mask forgotten twice in a year is nothing.

The school probably spends more on snacks and drinks in the morning tea room than they do on providing spare masks so while I don't disagree with the notion of charging for the masks the cost of a few spare masks every day would be negligible to the overall school budget for most schools

@sparepantsandtoothbrush

Am I the only one who'd shrug and tell him not to forget it again if he doesn't want another detention? 😂 I certainly wouldn't be phoning the school over it but it looks like I'm in the minority

You probably are in the minority unfortunately! No wonder kids are so entitled these days if a punishment from the school is met by pushback and indignation from parents.

I'd definitely phoned the school, they sound unreasonable. How about the replacement after all?

@Mrgrinch

I think it's excessive. I'd be telling them he's not attending the detention.

I agree it’s excessive. I disagree with telling a child not to do a detention that has been set. It sets a dangerous precedent.

The school probably spends more on snacks and drinks in the morning tea room than they do on providing spare masks
...said no one who has ever worked in a real school Do behave! This may be life in a corporate office but school staff get nothing for free.

@Taciturn

I thought the face mask restriction had been lifted in schools?

Some places, including Kirklees, chose to keep them.

I think it's pretty harsh, but it's very odd that some posters seem to be confusing school rules with, er, the law: it's not against the law to shave Nike swooshes into a child's hair, but if it's against school rules, they'd get a detention. That's not the basis upon which I'd challenge this.

I'm so sorry OP that so many people have ignored your update on what awful news your son had to contend with that morning.

Yeah, I'd missed that. Definitely reason to ask the school to rescind- even if it's actual policy exceptions can and should be made.

@AwaAnBileYerHeid - there is a world of difference between raising ‘an entitled’ child and one who feels you’ve got their back. School staff do make mistakes/errors of judgement and it is ok to question that occasionally. My DD has just left year 11 and I have only contacted the school twice in all her time when I’ve thought school has got something wrong. The rest of the time she has been told to suck it up and get on with it.

I'd be very unhappy about it. Hardly cause for a detention.

@BikeRunSki

Some places, including Kirklees, chose to keep them.

And other 'some places*, like those pesky countries, like Scotland. And Wales. And I think Northern Ireland too.

Yeah the bits of the UK in Non-England.

@StoppinBy

I would follow it up with the school too. a mask forgotten twice in a year is nothing.

The school probably spends more on snacks and drinks in the morning tea room than they do on providing spare masks so while I don't disagree with the notion of charging for the masks the cost of a few spare masks every day would be negligible to the overall school budget for most schools

Oh wait - were you being serious?

[quote DumplingsAndStew]@BikeRunSki

Some places, including Kirklees, chose to keep them.

And other 'some places*, like those pesky countries, like Scotland. And Wales. And I think Northern Ireland too.

Yeah the bits of the UK in Non-England.[/quote]
Haven't they left yet?

Our school still insist masks everywhere

@wasthataburp

I wouldn't be happy about that at all. You should definitely refuse to allow him to do the detention. Also I wouldn't be allowing my 13 year old to even be wearing a mask.

This.