Detention for an overdue library book

[Giftedsleeper]

My daughter is a hard-working student who has never received a single sanction since starting Year 7. She is now in Year 9 and was mortified today to receive a detention for an overdue library book.
While I completely understand that the book was overdue, I do question whether it’s really necessary to issue a detention for this. It feels a little excessive to create fear around returning a library book on time, especially when we live in a world where encouraging children to read is already such a challenge.
I suppose I just needed to vent my frustration about this situation.

Our local library doesn’t fine at all if children are late returning a book, just adults. I think that’s terrible of the school.

Yabu because being consistently good doesn’t make her entitled to get away with breaking rules even if you don’t seem them necessary.

Parenting wise you should get behind the school on this. It’s a VERY important lesson for her to learn.

My family borrows books and other items from our local council and if we return them late we pay a fine. If I forget to pay a bill on time I will get to pay an extra late fee. If I forget to cancel an upcoming hotel reservation I no longer need two weeks in advance I'll lose my deposit. In my early teens I was once late for an interview because I wrote the time down wrong and as a result I missed out on a well-paying summer job.

Humans all make mistakes. It doesn't mean we're bad people or that we should be endlessly punished, but mistakes do often bring unpleasant consequences to ourselves and to others around us. Being able to accept those consequences without melting down and say "Whoops, I wish I hadn't done that because it cost me X. I'm going to do Y to make sure it doesn't happen again" is a vital aspect of resiliency and accountability.

Fining school children the way council libraries do adults has obvious issues. But school libraries still need loaned materials returned on time and students need to be practicing these sorts of responsibilities. So what would an appropriate consequence for neglecting that particular responsibility be if not a short detention? Detentions are boring while served then they're over with no long-term effects.

No - they’ll return them on time as they’re supposed to, and at the same time learn that actions have consequences….

of course they can, just bring your book back on time the same way they would bring their PE kit or their homework. The library could have had an issue with people not returning books so needed to crack down on it.

hopefully this will prompt your DD to bring a book back on time. Theres lots of things in adult life with deadlines she’ll have to get used to making sure aren’t late.

Why are you making such a big deal out of it? So unhelpful for your child.

Mistake - sanction - move on.

She doesn’t have anything to fear, FFS. Why can’t she take this as a learning to set a reminder to bring back her book?

Abhorrent, really? That’s a bit of an overreaction

If it was my daughter she wouldn’t borrow a book again, because she’d be too worried that she’d accidentally return it late and get another detention. So I’m not sure that would be quite the desired effect, but maybe it is.

No fines for children’s books at ours either.

I don’t see the issue with this at all, there’s always been a penalty for overdue books, usually it’s a fine but kids don’t typically have their own money parents pay it, so the school have made the penalty one that the kids directly have to pay - their time. She has to give up 30 mins- 1 hr of her time in return for bringing the book back late which potentially prevented another student from being able to get access to the book and caused the librarian additional work.

A detention should be given for poor behaviour but they are also given for things like, incorrect uniform, no PE kit, lack of equipment, late library books. Your daughter just needs to make sure she returns them on time in future and this might make sure she does. I don’t think it raises any questions about the adult’s resilience

That would be a real shame for your daughter but would ultimately be her choice.

Am a little ambivalent on this one - libraries need to assert consequences for late returned books. However there are times when borrowers cannot afford fines. This may result in a book never being returned or those who could benefit from accessing ‘free’ books self-excluding.

In a school, where perhaps there are families who simply could not afford a late fine, or where the admin involved in chasing books and fines would be onerous and frustrating, I can see that using detentions is a practical alternative that doesn't impact low income families differently to those who can pay them (without really caring they have a late fine anyway). A fine is kind of a family sanction whereas a detention is centred on the borrower/child and issued regardless of social demographic.

I’d explain to DD that this is just one of those things and that she just needs to learn from it.

This is why my DS never borrows anything in the school library- he's so afraid to forget to bring it in time. We go to our local library and I borrow on my card. Even adults get a reminder by mail when there are 3 days left so it seems bonkers that they don't remind the children !

Surely as a parent you’d tell her some things have consequences and teach her some resilience. If this put your child off going to a library and you let it happen her not going back like there’s been some big miscarriage of justice then that’s a parenting fail on you

Does no one in your household have a phone? That you can extremely easily set reminders on??

Why should we do that when the library send out an sms automatically when there are 3 days left on a book?

How does she cope with remembering other things like homework or PE kit? I don’t understand how a library book is any different. If she got detention once for forgetting her PE kit, would she just avoid doing PE in the future so she can’t forget her kit?

Another one not capable of setting a reminder on her phone?

She hasn’t got a phone, she’s 11.

In this instance the school library don’t do that. So you take responsibility and set a reminder yourself.

This isn’t rocket science!!! Do you always want everything handed in a plate to you?

Do you not have a phone?

Yes I do. Irrelevant though, as she’s never actually forgotten a library book, her PE kit or her homework. I was talking about a hypothetical situation.

It’s called “personal responsibility”
You should do it because you borrowed the book and you wish to take it back on time.

So hypothetically your daughter would never borrow a book from the school library because she can’t put a reminder in her planner or ask you to put one in your phone and so she just wouldn’t borrow books?

Well, that’s up to her I guess. Sounds a bit daft though.