This punishment is overly harsh

[Whatafustercluck]

Pupil 1 took some test tubes from the science department.

Pupil 2 smashed the test tubes (deliberately) on the floor.

Pupil 3 retrieved a piece of glass from the floor and threw it back down.

Witnessed by a member of staff and a member of the public. School investigations appear to confirm varying levels of involvement/ culpability among the three pupils.

All three have an hour after school detention. All three will be on report, having had 3 behaviour points added to their records. Science teacher freely admits that pupil 3 was not directly involved in taking the test tubes and that there were 'varying roles and levels' of involvement in the incident.

Pupil 3 is my son. I've said he will need to do the punishment, and there would be no case to answer if he had just not got involved at all, no room for misunderstandings etc. We've spoken before about being guilty by association and making better choices. I don't intend to appeal it, firstly because I don't believe it would change anything and secondly because I take the view that I shouldn't undermine a teacher.

But there is a large part of me that believes that differing levels of culpability require differing levels of punishment.

AIBU?

They should all be punished equally. If you think your son was not egging on the other two as much as they were egging him on then you are deluded.

Maybe they will all learn a lesson

Meh, the cost of getting involved isn’t it.

Very presumptuous.

I usually roll my eyes at a lot of the stories of schools being overly strict these days on here, but not in this situation.

Punishment seems about appropriate for all three of them, if they'd had a couple more detentions on top it wouldn't have been unfair either. Same for all three.

Sorry if I missed this but how old is your son? 'Making better choices'? God I hated that phrase when the nursery class teacher used it, never mind applying it to secondary pupils.

@5128gap completely agree. Why is this a thing?!

It's just a detention. Most pupils have one at some point, it's like a speeding ticket, sometimes you simply get caught out when you weren't really intentionally behaving badly. He should do the time and move on.

There are of course a scale of different punishments but it would be too time consuming to have to pick apart the nuances of every case rather than "three kids involved in stealing a small piece of equipment and messing around with it = basic detention".

Exclusions are when you need to start worrying as they are (rightly) for more serious/long term behaviour.

There should be. What your child did was more dangerous than child A. Your child should have a more severe punishment.

Pupil 2 smashed glass on the floor deliberately.

Pupil 3 smashed glass on the floor deliberately.

Same punishment for all 3 pupils is reasonable.

Joint enterprise concept

That mum going in to complain should be going in to apologise and offer to pay? How embarrassing

I agree with you OP in that the punishment for the first two pupils should have been much harsher.

A detention is standard for not doing homework etc. so I think it’s reasonable for your son.

But it’s nowhere near adequate for the other two who instigated the theft and criminal damage. I’d expect an 3 day exclusion at the very least. Parent of Pupil 1 needs to cop onto herself fast! She’s clearly doing her kid no favours at all.

Equal punishment is reasonable.
Pupil 1 stole something, but he didn’t create a hazard and a mess by smashing it.
Pupil 2 didn’t steal, but he created a hazard/mess.
Pupil 3 was the same as pupil 2 ie created hazard/mess.

Pupil 1’s act was deceitful (theft) but 2 and 3 were more destructive.

In my GS school they would be looking at suspension.

Think what you like, I've said I'm supporting the school's decision, and had you bothered to read my other replies you'd see that teachers speak highly of him. But don't let the facts get in the way of a good judgey assumption, eh?

To everyone else who has taken the time to reply, thank you for your views. We've spoken to ds about the whole thing and I'm convinced he's learned an important lesson. We're drawing a line under it, fairly certain that we're not raising a hooligan (believe it or not, he's looking at a career in policing) and sometimes kids make mistakes - just as adults do.

The punishment does seem harsh for his minimal involvement but I guess he will just have to suck it up and take the punishment. Lesson learned. My youngest once took something from the school cafeteria without paying (as a dare 🙄😠) and spent a couple of days in the out of lessons classroom as punishment - he also got read the riot act at home and was grounded with no xbox. He didn't repeat that stupid behaviour!

Its Joint Enterprise - all three acting as a group and no one walked away so its the same crime and same punishment.

I think its ridiculous. If I found my colleague had just broken something then got fired along with them for touching the thing she smashed, I'd be going for unfair dismissal.

He got involved in silly, dangerous behaviour. Of course he should do a detention

What if you'd seen it and just picked it up and smashed it back down on the floor?

If I picked something off the floor to realise it was glass, yes I'd drop it quickly.

Important to explain to children over 10 years old the concept of joint enterprise. @Whatafustercluck your son needs to know about this so he can make informed decisions with a good idea of likely real world consequences. If outside of school it could have been a youth caution for example.

Pupil 1's mother taking up even MORE staff time...

joint enterprise.
what age is he.
i think you need to be stricter with him.
don't be too pally.

Why would the school have different levels of punishment.
It's a detention not 5000yrs hard labour.
Pupils messing about is common.

What was your son going to do with the glass he picked up, if he hadn't been seen? 🤔