To be peeved off that i have to be up and out by 8.15 on a saturday morning........

[theladyevenstar]

Because DS1 has a 2 hour saturday detention for something that even the teaching staff know he didn't do???

Something that happens outside school cannot be given a school detention. Especially for your DS who is entirely innocent and must have been so scared. I haven't got time to read the thread but I think next time refuse on his behalf - it is not policy to give detention for out of school behaviour. Also complain to the police about the men chasing your DS. I am at the teacher and so for your son.

He deserves a treat!

Did the one who didn't turn up for detention throw the stone or was he innocent like your ds? If the same thing happened to my ds I would have written a letter to the head, copied to the chair of governors, explaining precisely why my ds would not be attending the detention. If he then was excluded I would take my complaint to the LEA. Utterly ridiculous and YA most definitely NBU.

me too MOllie, I would not have gone and I would have written an official letter of complaint

Totally wrong for the school to punish innocent boys.

YANBU. I would not take my child to detention for something she had not done.

I would have sent a letter if i had known prior to yesterday that he had this detention. I found out when he came in from school with a letter to tell me.

The boy who didn't turn up was also innocent...but guilty by association!

I assume that his parents will take the matter further when they find out he has been excluded for 3 days. This is just so completely and utterly wrong and sends a very mixed message to the innocent ones who got caught up with this. If I were your son I'd be thinking why bother being well behaved .

I hope you will be writing to the head and governors. How can detention be enforced with next to no notice? What would have happened if you were going to be away this weekend?

OMG!!!!

I wouldnt have sent him and the head of house would have felt my wrath.

These men forced a group of 11 yo back to their house - surprised the police didnt have a word with them about that.

Make a formal complaint to the Governors.

I would have just not sent him to the detention and taken the letter in on Monday morning.

Unbelievable that a child who has done nothing wrong has been excluded for 3 days. How is that possible if the head teacher said no further punishment was necessary? Surely the head of house doesn't have the ability to exclude children from school?

Apparently missing a saturday detention results in an automatic 3 day suspension....

Unbelievable.
I am great one for sucking up life's minor unfairnesses but this is ridiculous.

I would ask for an appointment with the head to calmly discuss it.

So if I saw a crime take place, I'm guilty too? Just because I was there?

No, it's called being a witness, not a guilty counterpart!

I would be complaining to the police about the 2 men that chased and held your ds - not quite kidnapping but would have thought that there was some legal technical term for detaining minors; if they weren't the ones that had done the crime then they could hardly be claiming that it was a common law arrest...

You don't say where they were being held, but even if it was outside I would be furious with the men that did this. Can't begin to imagine how scary it must have been for your ds to have been chased and held.

What did the police say about the way the men behaved - can you get them to caution the men?

Also - I would be furious with the teacher that took the boys names. If he stuck his nose in for long enough to take names then he was getting involved; if there were boys there who were being held for doing nothing wrong I would be outraged that he didn't help your ds & the other innocent one.

We try so hard to give our children messages about being responsible and keeping away from strangers. And then the message gets all muddled when things like this happen.

It also sounds like you need to speak to the head of house to make a complaint to him and ask exactly how a young lad can bring a school into disrepute by being chased by two scary men who they had no idea what they were going to do to them - surely getting away was the sensible thing. What if the men had been annoyed and rather than wait for the police thought they would dish out a little of their own justice and beat them up for the broken window, regardless of their innocence? It's easy for him to get on his high horse with the advantage of hindsight but he wasn't there, the boys were and they were scared and had adrenalin flowing, just a moment to make a 'fight or flight' decision - they made the right one.

The worrying thing is that next time (hopefully there won't be one) the wrong message has been sent out, not just to your son but the school that you should stay in potentially dangerous situations - just to avoid saturday detention...

When you spoke to him on the phone was it during or after he'd been held?
If it was me I must admit I would have been straight on the phone to the police to say that some stranger had held my son captive. I would also have wanted to speak to the men.

Sorry, lots of random thoughts, reading this made me very angry on behalf of your son and you!