Parents Upset With School’s Policy Of Punishing Students When They Do Something Wrong
Some parents at an Oregon K-8 school are upset that their kids are being asked to do chores around the campus when they get in trouble. The school says it’s trying to teach “social responsibility.” The misbehaving kids clearly have their parents in the palm of their hands.
Jeff Hagadorn was upset when he learned that his first grader was forced to pick up trash in the halls after getting in trouble in class. He told KPTV, ”I don’t think it’s right. I feel like if a student gets in trouble I’m fine with him having detention or having extra school work. My son has been humiliated and he’s frightened to go to school and he feels sorry has some esteem issues. I just don’t think that’s right.” Hagadorn is pulling his son out of the school where and enrolling him in a school where they “don’t have that disciplinary action.”
The district says they came up with the plan to avoid extra homework and students missing class due to detention. It claims the discipline is not done during class time and there is always an adult supervising. The district also claims that the number of students being expelled has gone down since they implemented the program.
Would students be embarrassed by having to pick up trash on campus while their peers enjoyed recess? Probably. That would be a good motivator for not misbehaving to begin with. If my child came home and told me he was misbehaving in class and now he was humiliated because he was made to pick up trash to make up for it, I would say, “Too bad. Don’t act up in class and you won’t have to clean the halls.” It’s amazing that this parent opted to focus on the “humiliation” of the punishment, rather than the fact that his son did something that warranted punishment to begin with.
A district spokesperson told Yahoo Parenting, “We’re trying to see if the chores match the discipline. If they make a mess, they have to clean it up. If they hurt someone, they have to apologize. If they are involved in a food fight, then part of the discipline is to correct their behavior by them cleaning it up ”” but if they’re being instructed to instead be cleaning up the restrooms, that’s not okay.” She’s responding to one parent’s claim that his son had to pick paper towels up off the bathroom floor as his punishment. Oh well. I’ve worked in a restaurant as a hostess. I had to do that. Didn’t kill me.
Point is, if the school has found a punishment policy that is different from a zero-tolerance one that is quick to suspend students and force them to miss class — more power to them. If parents have a problem with their kids picking up trash, maybe they should tackle the root of the problem; tell their kids to behave in school so they don’t have to be subjected to that kind of “humiliation.”
(photo: Getty Images)
