Child in all day detention for something they didn't do.

[rooby252]

Hi,
I'm just trying to see if this is common practice in secondary schools really.
One of my children was kept in an all day detention for 1.5 days for something that happened after school and he wasn't responsible for.
He was at a bus stop with a few other children from his year group (year 8) and another boy threw a plastic bottle on to the floor. It bounced off the floor. It didn't hit anyone or anything and didn't break.
A teacher apparently saw the incident and saw my son wasn't involved, but the school kept the 4 children in detention for 1.5 days- knowing exactly who had thrown the bottle- waiting to see if the boy responsible would own up.
They missed out on all lessons, just doing work they had already done in year 7.
I feel really angry about it but am thinking this might just be how school do things these days?

With regards to school discipline/punishment I would choose the hill you’re going to die on very carefully. My DS was usually involved in some of the silly things teenage boys do and I always got his side of the story and then the schools. Until he was accused of something he absolutely didn’t do and I knew he hadn’t because of his reaction, if he had done something warranting a punishment he always took it on the chin. The school took me seriously when I complained because they knew I always supported them previously. I would make sure you have got the full story. There’s likely video footage taken by other kids doing the rounds.

I went to school in the dark ages and nobody cared if took our blazers off. We were allowed in the school and the grounds in cardigans but on leaving school grounds we were meant to either take the cardigan off or put the blazer on top of the cardigan as we strode out in woolly prickly tartan kilts. You wouldn't have got a detention though if you were caught with a cardigan on outside - maybe just a telling off. We were still calling our male teachers sir and a good caning was on the cards for misbehaving. They must have missed something on the removing of blazers front.

My own children went to a school with no uniform or dress code other than enough clothes not to be indecently exposing yourself. You could grow a beard or a Mohawk or wear tiny shorts or indeed almost anything. I gather it was quite difficult to find anything to rebel against. They got good academic results though and the school was in an affluent area. They were, generally speaking, a very tolerant bunch of pupils.

So a group of dc missed 6 lessons for an incident where the teacher could have just said
John Smith pick that bottle up now.
Thank God my dc are adults.

Is it possible that it’s not the incidents themselves, but your DS’s reaction to the teacher during these incidents? I’ve had situations with students where they’ve done something minor (like moving a chair), and when I say “why are you moving that chair?” they kick off rather than simply answering the question. They’ll get a detention for their attitude, but claim they’re getting a detention for “moving a chair that had something sticky on it.”

What does that have to do with this?

Teachers are sometimes tasked with after school duties, e.g bus stops near to the school, which is presumably why they saw this.

If it helps, in my experience bullies are usually very good at their jobs and don't do it under the noses of teaching staff.

Oh please. Stop making excuses for him. Schools don't keep people in detention gor no reason. It's not the full story and your child is no angel.

And here is the problem. People making assumptions and jumping on the bash a teacher bandwagon. It's no wonder positions are unfilled nationwide.

Wake up OP. Between my 2 boys, they have only had 1 detention (lunchtime) over many years. This is a lot of detentions. It's not a school problem, it's a DS behaviour problem.

I’m guessing the teacher was there and looking at something else when the bottles was thrown, then turned towards the noise and saw the bottle, the four boys, and the chaos. They probably had a very good idea which boy threw the bottle but didn’t actually see the moment it left his hands. Also it may well be the case that all 4 boys were still laughing/joking/ egging each other on which could explain the collective punishment too.

Where’s the rest of the story?

The school seem to dish out detentions for very silly reasons- I've got two children in the school and they have had, between them, detentions for
Looking guilty
Looking at a fly
Asking where the Middle East is
Taking a blazer off without the teachers permission
Moving a chair that had something sticky on it for a clean one

Oh come on op. Wise up! These are mostly bullshit excuses. Your DC are simply not admitting that there's worse behaviour behind this.

The police outside the school at home time? I've never seen anything like that anywhere, What is going on with that school tht police presence is required? That seems quite firghtening to me.

I love the "Why did you give my dc a detention for asking for pen" emails. It is never as clear cut as that and I wish parents wouldn't take their teenage dcs word as gospel. Even the nicest teens will tell a lie to get out of something. I was a nice teen and I lied about all sorts to my parents. I assume the lack of update is because someone has explained that op's child did do something wrong.

And after two preening, self-righteous posts, you finally get to your actual point which is telling a random stranger in society that your children are better than hers.

This.

OP, you're often not getting the full story when you talk to kids about why they are in trouble.

You do need to have a meeting with the school.

Having said that, 1.5 days in isolation is quite extreme and I would question if/ why that was necessary, and why they were doing year 7 work.

Surely you’re not this gullible OP…It sounds like your kids run rings around you if you believe such obvious bullshit like “I got a detention today for looking guilty”.

Yes, it obviously ridiculous that a group a boys got a stint in isolation simply because one of them threw a plastic bottle onto the ground inconsequentially at a bus stop.

Entirely agree.

Everyone jumping on saying it’s not the full story…guess what kids can tell the truth.

Last year in secondary mine was put in isolation for the afternoon for something they didn’t do. They said they didn’t do it and around 20 kids also said they didn’t do it. They were still put in isolation.
I received a phone call about this and told that because another child had got hurt they would be in isolation for another 2 days. I told the school that wouldn’t be happening as they hadn’t done it and there was witnesses.
After me they phoned the child’s parents who had got hit with the object and their father also said their child had said it wasn’t mine and asked why they had put the wrong child in isolation!!
Not all kids lie.

My money's on 'kids throwing things at cars going past the bus stop'.

No one is saying that all kids lie. What a ridiculous extrapolation.

OP hasn't even spoken to the school, and has provided also a rather ridiculous list of reasons why the kids have been in trouble including "looking guilty", "looking at a fly" and "asking where the Middle East is" - these examples are clearly not the whole story.

In case anyone is interested in the problem of setting work in isolation or internal exclusion or whatever, this is part of my role. Work has to be set that is accessible for a very wide range of students of ages between year 7 and year 11.
It has to be work students can do on their own. It isn't work from lessons as lessons are interactive with tons of teacher content ie live question and answer sessions.
Also both the national curriculum and GCSE courses are spiral so content is covered again and again. So doing year 7 work in year 8 is actually planned and done on purpose. In a nutshell repeating work is a good idea as it aids students long term memory.
And lastly getting the correct work to the students can be tricky what with multiple staff involved and some students being frequent customers as it were. Also I'm often called away from making sure everything is working by parents turning up without appointments in a desperate hurry.
I'm always amazed by how parents are so concerned about the work I set in these situations. Teachers are worth their weight in gold in my opinion!

You're definitely not getting the full story here!