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?

Yes - because it's most likely the case here, given that she hasn't spoken to the school and her kids have made some fairly dubious claims in the past about why they've been in trouble.

That doesn't mean anyone is saying that all kids lie.

Got a detention for asking where the middle east is.

Of course they did.

I'm so so glad I'm not a teacher anymore. I miss the kids and I miss the teaching but this kind of nonsense was the worst aspect of it.

They missed a day - what happens if he is ill? the teacher is ill?

Probably nothing.

They missed two days of teaching which will have to be caught up on. Children are entitled by law to full time education, and sitting down doing set work isn't education - if it was, we wouldn't need teachers and schools.

If this was for purposes of investigating an essentially trivial incident, it was extreme overkill and a very inefficient investigation. It shouldn't have taken more than an hour for them to sit each of the boys down separately and get them to write out their accounts of the incident.

OP, if I were you I would seriously be investigating alternative schools.

My dd who was a rule follower got a detention in the old days when computers were fairly clunky and new.
She was using a computer in music and a pop up appeared on her screen, the teacher decided she was responsible and the detention was given.
I know dd wasn’t lying because 18 years later she still feels hard done by. 😂

Sure. What would you like me to stop doing in order to have time to send all of these EXACT emails home? Planning lessons? Marking? Parents’ evenings? Trips?

Firstly your child is probably bullshitting.

Secondly even if they are innocent as driven snow as you say, I don't think this is really the worst lesson to learn. Life is hard, sometimes it's not fair, if you're in the wrong place at the wrong time you can be unlucky.

Imagine instead of a plastic bottle and a bus stop this was the same teens at a party with drugs or something. Your kid needs to learn to recognise a bad scene and get away from it. Not just whinge about unfairness.

I hated that too.
However I would have been the one talking when whole class punishments were given for noise.
The most effective punishment at primary was when the teacher called me to the front and put me across her knee and smacked my bum for talking.
It didn’t hurt but the humiliation was awful
I totally deserved it though.

Snitches get stitches blood!

Right, because snitches are sooooooooooooo popular...

... OK... and no one's saying your DD is lying?

People are saying that OP needs to speak to the school because in this specific instance, and given the background of things the kids claim to have been in trouble for, it sounds like she's possibly not getting the whole story.

In a strict school that does that sort of group punishment or detentions for every minor thing then all you can do is try to avoid troublemakers, keep your head down and avoid attracting attention. I don't blame your DS for not telling the teachers who did it though, that's usually more trouble than it's worth at school.

I'd speak to the school if you want to clarify some things but if that's the discipline route that they've gone down then it is what it is.

This is a school where you get a detention for looking at a fly though. I imagine if you beat up a snitch you probably get publicly guillotined.

😆

Bahahahahahaha!!! Yeah of course they were the reasons they got detention 😂

Detention for the child, or a fine for their parents? Just wondering if the latter would be more effective.

It just seems to me that children are often punished for the results of poor parenting that have gone unchecked.

Yes, some kids can be little sh*ts, but I'm really becoming fed up of parents who don't, or can't, parent.

It depends, "Where the fuck is the ME" might do it.

Also the, "I haven't got a pen" when the school does an equipment check every morning and if you have missing equipment you are supposed to go to the office and borrow a school pen.

Then the, "You are discriminating, you won't let me listen to music 'cos I am (insert ethnicity / sex / way of dressing / wearing glasses) but she lets so and so"

No dear, I said when you are doing individual work you can listen to music via headphones / ear buds not from your phone in the middle of the table when the 'music' contains numerous 4 letter words.

"I'm only looking at a fly" when you and a friend have been chasing around the classroom, jumping on desks trying to swat the fly.

Long story made short
I Iwitnessed an associate teacher swear (Piss off and do your work) at a student who only said she had completed her work and what should she now do. Yr11
Student said Fuck you and left the classroom.
Student given 2 days exclusion and 2 days isolation. I spoke to head of inclusion in support of the student and said teacher had sworn at student.
Student punished. Teacher no action.
Disgusting.

In a previous life I was a head of year. I have to say that although I know teachers nowadays have a hard time and a heavy work load, I think that some aspects of discipline are not good practice. For example not allowing pupils to talk as they walk between classes. Young people have an acute sense of justice and it is not good to punish all for one.

We can’t always bail our kids out. If this story is true the teacher was the adult in authority and sometime kids have to deal with life being unfair. You have to show you trust the teacher’s judgement too or it undermines the teacher’s authority and there is a decline in respect for that teacher, education and general society. As parents we should be stepping in on important things like bullying, abuse etc, not these trivialities.

We are not helping anyone by helicoptering in when things have not gone the child’s way.
It doesn’t help their resilience and hinders their ability to handle a miscarriage of justice (yes a very minor one).

We won’t always be able to ‘call on our parents’ as we won’t always be here, we won’t always be able to solve the problem and it is not a great attitude to encourage.

Luckily we no longer live in the Dark Ages where teachers were allowed to hit pupils.

There is no way any secondary school in this country has the capacity to include 4 pupils for throwing a bottle on the floor. You’re not getting the full story.

Read your updates - sorry for being that person! That school sounds insane. We are dealing with really serious behavioural issues that we can’t sanction properly as we don’t have enough resources and staff. At least you know the teachers get to teach, I suppose! But it does seem disproportionate for the “offence”.

Sorry, I'm not sure what you mean, what's a coincidence?