school vandalism

[insomnia001]

My son wrote on a school chair with a crayon. He is 6 years old. I was called in and told he had vandalised school property. It was the first time he had done this. Do you think terming it as vandalism was a bit harsh?

What would you call it? Artistic expression?

TBH, I don't think vandalism is too strong a term really. He has damaged school property and is old enough to know that's wrong. What penalty did the school give him and did you think it was fair?

what do you think it is???

He has written on something that he is not supposed to write on imo.

DS did this beginning of Y3 on a brand new chair. He had to tell me (as instructed by teacher) and take in cleaning materials and clean it off after school. I stood over him while he did it and he knew that I fully supported the teacher and the punishment.

Personally, I agree with the term - being a teacher myself. We know how cash strapped schools are and how disheartening it can be for any child to damage property that has been bought for their learning, comfort and joy. We are so strapped for cash that I even buy the toy cars in my Y1 class out of my own money as well as the plasticine and jigsaws because the £500 we are given between 3 classes for an entire year is not enough! Just last week, some boys were throwing the cars in the classroom and half of them are now broken. Whereas I didn't call in parents (believe me, we have enough to do after teaching hours than spend time telling parents their little darling has broken a car), the children were punished - missed the rest of 'choosing time', missed playtime, sent to SMT for a ticking off and then told they won't be replaced. When they ask; "Can we play with the cars?" the answer will be "yes" but they'll remember why there is only half of them there or none by the end of the year because I am not buying any new ones.
Your child's class teacher was right. At least ask yourself, will my child do this again? Probably not because he's experienced the seriousness of it. Children need to learn from their mistakes so mistakes don't happen again.