Many students have had to face the horror of receiving a call slip from the attendance office. The anger of having to receive hours and Saturdays. Having to come in on the weekends or after school sitting for hours. Detentions are nothing new; the argument being made is not that detention should be removed, but it should be changed for a real positive outcome. Using hours as a way to punish students does not change their actions.

Every student is different and so are the reasons for detentions. They are handed out to absences, tardies or bad behavior. Some students who receive hours may never become repeats. But, there are some students who receive enough Saturdays that it seems like they go to school six times a week.

There must be a reason as to why there are some students who are such repeat offenders. Continually serving student hours gives them no motivation to change.

Positive behavior should be rewarded especially if a student stops getting detentions. It is simply an inconvenience for the students to come after school and on weekends. Giving them detention is not a deterrent to stop the action.

Sitting in a classroom and being forced to be silent shouldn’t be used anymore. Picking up trash, helping the school look cleaner should be implemented as a way for students to serve their detentions. It should not be free time to do whatever.

Hours should be revised to help have students talk about what is going on in their outside lives. Notably, if some students are regularly receiving hours. Students should reflect on what caused them to have detention, so in the future, they can try to resolve the problem.

The students may understand that their bad behavior or absences have consequences, but the result of their menial detentions are not teaching them to behave any better.

By changing the way detentions are served, students might find the motivation to stop the behavior and it can help the school become better as well.

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Editorial Board

Agree – 6

Disagree – 0