<p>I was curious as what other schools use for referrals to detention.</p>
<p>My daughter doesn’t have attendance/behavior problems but was a couple minutes late to her first period class today ( she rides the city bus) and she has to stay in for lunch detention ( which means she won’t have lunch)</p>
<p>Since she is having to stay after school for help with her first period class ( math) this is going to be a very long day for her- and she needs a break.
She has been telling me, that her math teacher just doesn’t like her ( he doesn’t seem to like that she doesn’t “get” the way he explains things & is having to have another math teacher help her)- and perhaps she is right.</p>
<p>I couldnt’ find any clear guidelines about what constitutes referral to detention from their usually informative website- and since it has never come up before ( she is an 11th grader)- I admit I never inquired.</p>
<p>But it does seem to be subjective- I know some students that have skipped class( and all but confessed to their parents- which is where I heard it)- and when they gave their teacher a big line- the teacher bought it- so being two minutes late- once- just doesn’t seem to fall under the same category.</p>
<p>Yup. Starve the kids. It does wonders for improving their retention. Hey, could be worse - they could punish her with extra homework. School is punishment, and therefore a proper punishment is requiring more of the same.</p>
<p>Is your daughter going to be allowed to bring food with her? I don’t see how a school can keep a student from eating all day. It seems like a health issue. I would ask for the disciplinary guidelines from the counselor. It sounds rather heavy handed and hard hearted to punish someone for something beyond their control. I wonder how the teacher would feel if he were late because of transportation and his boss kept him in for lunch.</p>
<p>if she had been taking the “yellow bus” to school and it was late- then she would have been excused- but since she lives within 2 & 1/2 miles of the school- she is expected to walk- or otherwise get herself there.
If the public bus ran on schedule- it would be great- considering it isn’t that far- you wouldn’t think there would be much time for it to get off schedule.
Also if school started later- rather than a 7:40, I would have less sympathy for not wanting to walk that distance up and down hills ( we live at the bottom of one large hill and the school is at the bottom on the other side- technically it is within three miles though)</p>
<p>I did email the vice principal and the teacher- asking if detention could be given another day other than the day it was given- so students could bring something to eat- ( plus detention just sounds stupid- I know that they have clean up detail, for students who are behavior issues- which I agree with-depending- not during lunch, but on weekends- they are doing something positive- and while it is “punishment” it isn’t as meaningless as having them sit- reminds me of the breakfast club)</p>
<p>I really want to cry- she already had a horrible weekend- because the math teacher had the class retake the mastery tests that they had already passed- but the 2nd time- she failed it- ( she has a lot of anxiety around testing and processing difficulties) & when I tried to ask her about it- she became very upset- practically hysterical, which pretty much blew her weekend as it took her the whole time to calm down.</p>
<p>She has been doing so good- that I forget that she uses a lot of energy to control her behavior most of the time- so that when she has a melt down- I don’t see it coming.( it is helping me that our bookgroup book is The incident of the Dog in the Nighttime- from the viewpoint of an autistic teen- she has a lot of overlap with those"on the Spectrum" )</p>
<p>Im surprised at the lunch detention though- I wonder where they have it?
Schools dont’ have study halls anymore-because you would still need a teacher to supervise, when they could be teaching a class.</p>
<p>I also thought that - being late- was cumulative- after so many tardies, it counts as an absence-which can’t be excused- as opposed to skipping the entire class- which you can forge a note for. ( I would know)</p>
<p>At our school, tardy punishment is cumulative. I don’t think anything happens the first time, maybe not even the second.
If your daughter passed the first test, it shouldn’t matter how she does on the second. This teacher seems whacko. Reminds me of a teacher my son has- he told the class that those who got below a certain score on the test, could retake and replace their test grade (but not those who scored ABOVE). OK…yeh.</p>
<p>Imo, it is absurd to give detention for being a couple of minutes late to a class. The teachers know who the good kids are and since your daughter is one of these students it makes no sense, unless the teacher has it in for her for some reason. I can see doing that for kids who make a habit of it, or are just all-out obnoxious/behavior problems. It drives me crazy when teachers ignore the serious stuff and then do something like this to a good kid who is trying so hard. This happened once to my son in middle school–he had a lunch detention for a stupid reason and in no way deserved it. He’s never forgotten it. I just let it pass, though. Have to pick your battles.</p>
<p>It’s amazing how much food kids can cram into themselves outside of the formal lunch period. My daughter doesn’t eat breakfast because she gets up at 6:00 and leaves the house at 6:15, and she cannot even imagine getting up earlier than that in order to have time to eat. She brings a lunch to school, but somehow it gets consumed before the official “lunch period” at 10:50. I don’t ask how.</p>
<p>I suspect that your daughter will figure out some way to eat if she has food in her possession.</p>
<p>As for why she got the detention, I figure the teacher was having a bad day. It happens.</p>
<p>At the school my kids attended they made a very big deal about being late for first period classes and having three could make a student eligible for suspension. I could see their point as a full 20% of the school was becoming very lapse and casual about morning latenesses. I as a parent would call the teacher and apologize for daughter’s lateness and leave it at that.You could also mention to the teacher that your daughter seems to be worrying about the class and theacher’s perception of her. I have found these little talks with a teacher have done MUCH to ease my mind and soften the relationship. Good luck!</p>
<p>This ought to make your daughter laugh…my 8th grade son got a detention for not having a completed test paper signed by his parents. His grade: 100% :)</p>
<p>Now the best part is that when he went to detention all the kids were in shock that “mr. do nothing wrong” was sitting in their midst. The word flew through school and his 'street cred" immediately went skyward. He will tell you it’s the best thing that ever happened to him! </p>
<p>Missing lunch…probably illegal.</p>
<p>Being late, if you were friends with the office workers kids you got a pass…otherwise detention. C’est la vie.</p>
<p>well the vice principal emailed me back and said that she wouldhave time to eat her lunch- ( however I don’t know if she even has any money- she usually goes off campus with friends and they all share something)</p>
<p>I also would be more concerned if it had been a repeated offense & if she had been late coming back from lunch, rather than getting to school.
I suppose it is because that this week is the end of the semester & everyone is a bit testy anyway-
I am going to ask other parents what their experience has been- because it seems that we need clear guidelines of what to expect.</p>
<p>She has had a hard time with this teacher-she tried to get transferred out of his class at the beginning of the school year ( because she has had him before- she got an A & but since math is her area of greatest difficulty- she really needs someone that she can get help from)- She ultimately had to stay in the class because of schedule constraints- but it has been pretty difficult</p>
<p>I would write a note, put in Ds possession, and next time the bus is late, have her turn it in…saying that you are sorry she is late…transportation issue</p>
<p>what are they going to do? how do they know you didn’t drop her off? They have no way of knowing how she got to school, and if they are being this ridiculous for a first or even second offense, they deserve a bit of fibbing</p>
<p>If she rides the same bus everyday, and once in a while it is late, I would tell the prinicipal or whomever that</p>
<p>She can’t be the only student relying on the city buses…it takes one car double parked, or a truck blocking an intersection that can cause a bus to be just a few minutes late, an voila, poor kid has dentition</p>
<p>This is the kind of thing you should ask to see in writing and what the policy is</p>
<p>Does your school have a rotating schedule or does she have that math class every morning…if she does, egad, and some discussion of how D gets to school is warranted without accusing Math teacher of being a jerk…hard to do, I know</p>
<p>as for signatures, don’t tell anyone, but I have given my Ds permission to sign my name to permission slips, forms,etc if they forget, so long as the form isn’t a disciplinary one…and then they need to tell me, so if the school calls, I can say, sure I signed it, while driving</p>
<p>Sometimes those forms get lost, etc., and I will back my kids up because they are good kids </p>
<p>They have signed my name to a couple of things…they always tell me,…but the school has never called, it was for things like trying out for a play, or taking a class…nothing major</p>
<p>Well, I’m glad she’ll have time to eat, and I hope she has some money. How can a kid be expected to do well in school without any lunch?</p>
<p>My friend’s high school aged son’s bus stop was out of sight of his house. The bus was very late, and the mom was home, but because she couldn’t see the stop, she didn’t know he hadn’t been picked up. After a while, he finally walked home, and his mom drove him to school. She was furious when she found out he was counted tardy. Had he gone on waiting for the bus, which eventually showed up, the lateness wouldn’t have been counted as a tardy. Because he did the right thing, and went home to get a ride to school, it was counted against him.</p>
<p>I would write a note, put in Ds possession, and next time the bus is late, have her turn it in…saying that you are sorry she is late…transportation issue</p>
<p>That doesn’t work unfortunately</p>
<p>When she attended her previous school- she was eligible for a yellow bus- but becasue she has sensory “issues”, noise drives her insane and the fumes gave her a headache- I drove her to school- the 10 miles or so everyday.
If traffic was particulary bad and she was late- you don’t get an excuse- if you are not on a yellow bus that was late.</p>
<p>It doesn’t matter if you have a parent note or not- I have even gone into the office and found that because of traffic the yellow buses arrived there * way after* we did- but because I know sneaky ways- I was able to get there faster- just not fast enough.</p>
<p>Im sure she isnt the only one using the city bus- but that is a good question- since our district is going to have more high school students riding the city bus- ( whose routes can be quite roundabout)- how early are they expected to be at school?</p>
<p>I expect it will be like one job I worked- that I drove myself- but every so often- would be horrendous traffic ( it wasn’t that far either but it was to an island)- so 20 days out of the month I would be there a good 40-50 min before I needed to be, just to allow for traffic. ( and it was so long ago- that it was before espresso carts- today I imagine traffic at that hour has doubled)</p>
<p>If they are going to expect kids to have the same kind of advance planning- I hope they move the start times to something after 8am.</p>
<p>wow, at our Ds school, a parents note is good enough unles it happens alot, with no real excuse</p>
<p>Who are they to doubt a parent. seriouslly!! A parent is the ultimate person responsible, and if the parent says, gee sorry, and its a tardienss that is rare, that should be good enough</p>
<p>I understand if it was a continuing problem, but it is not, and say it rains, or the traffic lights go out, or the bus is stuck behind a stupid driver, to punish a child who in good faith did all they could to get to school on time, well, I would be very angry as well</p>
<p>What to do, go to the school board, if relevant and ask what the policy is for kids who are doing a GOOD THING by using public transporation!!! Aren’t the kids on the public buses doing what we all want them to do, and they are at the mercy of the driver if they will get their on time and they shouldn’t be punished, unless say its ore than twice a month or whatever…</p>
<p>This is something that should be addressed because the ripple effect could be bad- more kids driving, more parents driving, kids who say, heck, I am already getting a detention for 2 minutes, might as well make it 20</p>
<p>I think it is district policy that the only late arrivals that are excused are either prearranged because of an appt or are for students on the district buses.</p>
<p>I just heard from her counselor- since it appeared that there wasn’t a district policy for tardys and I couldn’t find anything about the school policy.
apparently * any* tardy- is grounds for lunch detention.</p>
<p>If you miss lunch detention, then you have to come in on Saturday for 4 hours.</p>
<p>How could I miss that? I don’t even remember reading that anywhere- & it isn’t consistent through the buildings.</p>
<p>I commend the school for making it clear that attendance is important- but geez.</p>
<p>( It does make me smile at her sisters experience- who went to private school- I gave her a ride as well & since we were often running late because of the joys of getting a reluctant 7 year old out the door- * I usually just wrapped her naked in a blanket*- she was late to her first period class- art- about once a week- her teacher however was very casual about taking roll & usually was in another part of the two story room when D arrived- the teacher would ask* oh hi, have you been here? * )</p>
<p>Emeraldkity, whatever the school policy, I would expect my child to be treated equally and that school rules be enforced consistently. You mentioned that other students come in late all the time but your daughter was singled out. After all this blows over, if you still feel this is the case I would speak to the disciplinary dean about it and express your concerns.</p>
<p>My kids attended a private school for a number of years on scholarship. It seemed to that mine were being picked on for silly dress code violations (didn’t shave good enough, wrong undershirt, yeah seriously), whereas I could walk into that school on any given day and see other students with far more “serious” violations (if you want to call tattoos, long hair, or shirttails serious). Anyway, I never complained about the discipline per se (rules are rules), but I did sit down once and chat with the dean and he admitted that some kids were off limits and that discipline was not meted out evenly due to family situations (politics, finances). I acknowledged the necessity of their situation but asked that in the future my boys be treated the same as everyone else.</p>
<p>It’s just plain bad policy to enforce rules inconsistently, whether in the home or at school.</p>
<p>Most kids are pretty good at sensing when a teacer does not like them. My S had a similar situation, with a Math teacher (what’s with them?). His previous class was at the furthest end of the building, and the hallways are always logjammed, so he was often 2 minutes late to this class. Now, my son explained to the teacher, but at least once a week, the teacher would make some sarcastic remark. Yet other kids that walked in after my son were greeted with a “Hi, Johnny” and a smile. uugh.
Never got a detention for it though.
Finally, my son lost it one day, and called the teacher on it in the class. S also asked the teacher if he was racist!!! The teacher never did it again…</p>
)</p>