Opinions on this high school punishment?
I recently moved to a new high school 2 weeks ago and it is very strict. I found out that if students are late to school in the morning, 3 times a term, the punishment is to pick up rubbish around the whole school at lunch time. The student(s) must carry an Orange bucket given by the school deans and walk around the entire campus at lunch time to pick up rubbish. Any reasons why our school would have this type of punishment and what purpose does this serve? I personally find this to be harsh. Would love to chat further on this subject.
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IF you don’t want to be picking up rubbish, DON’T be late!!! Once you make it into the adult world, being late is NOT considered an acceptable practice; so, learn now!!! Once you have a job, IF you’re late too frequently, you can be FIRED; so, picking up rubbish might be a good start to becoming a responsible person!!!
Are you in the UK? Sounds like it’s a private school.
What do your parents think? That would be the most important if you want to change schools.
I guess don’t be late. Hopefully, your school day starts at a reasonable hour. That’s pretty rare in the US. School often starts crazy early, and it is debilitating for some of us.
Sounds like adequate punishment to help prepare students for real world jobs.
Where I use to work “tarty” was defined as 0 to 5 minutes late. That’s right if I clocked in exactly on time I was considered tarty. Derogatory counseling documentation was given for being tarty and late for work that effected end of the year performance evaluation.
Much depend on what country or state this school is in. Is it Public or Private.
Nevertheless, The color of the bucket, nor the tasks are cruel punishment. It is to teach you that YOUR choice to be late 3 times a term has consequences.
What is the consequence for being late once?, twice? ten times?
The school has a rule to be on time. Life has rules to be on time. If you are late to a job continually you will get fired. If you are late to a medical appointment you will pay a late fee. Other consequences in life involve ORANGE Prison Pants.
This is life. There are rules. There are consequences.
Schools are there to HELP you succeed in life.
Make the best of this one life you have to live.
It’s interesting that your school’s system of discipline jumps right to public shaming. It’s honestly probably effective if they are as strict at implementing the punishment as they are in threatening it. This seems like some prep school shit, honestly, preparing you for the world of public performance as an indicator of class.
I hate to sound like an unsympathetic prick, but this doesn’t sound that bad. They’re literally beating kids in Missouri. I pick up trash all of the time for free when I go on a walk along the trails near my house. It feels good to leave things a little better than how I found them.
I think this is embarrassing to do for being late to class. The school can come up with a better way to get the message across to the student. Public shaming is NOT acceptable to me. First, they should find out why the student is being late and see if they can address the reason(s) why. Second try to work with the student to correct this problem. And third, if “punishment” is in order make it something that doesn’t publicly shame the student and helps them become punctual.
The punishment does not match the offense. Students should be encouraged to keep the school grounds clean, maybe even have volunteers regularly do trash cleanup.
Yeah, this doesn’t sound like a punishment; actually, here in the Netherlands it’s very common to see people pick up garbage (cigarette buds, cans, wrappers, etc.) every now and then, with a grabber and a trash bag.
I did so myself.
To clarify my answer, this is getting off easy. It’s fine for your school to do this. Even just ten years ago the common way to deal with being late in some schools was to lock the door, deny entry and receive a failing grade for any assignments that day. Being late for class without a valid excuse is rude, and it disrupts learning for everyone else in the class.
No it’s not harsh.
@gorillapaws I live in Missouri, it’s a paddle not a beating. And parents can opt out in that rural school district.
I also pick up trash just to help our environment.
@KNOWITALL ”...it’s a paddle not a beating.”
I mean they’re striking children with objects. If “paddling” makes that sound better to you in some way, then I guess I stand corrected?
Respect for the trash pickup! I don’t understand the mentality of people who love nature enough to want to go for walks on nature trails, but are also capable of littering? I’m trying to picture what that person’s like. Do they drive a Porche and casually toss snicker wrappers as they cruise around on their e-bike?
In the state I live in, hitting a child with anything other than an open hand is a definite CPS report. Paddles would be in that category.
@gorillapaws “Do they drive a Porche and casually toss snicker wrappers as they cruise around on their e-bike?”
Yes.
My stereotype of people who litter has nothing to do with Porsche’s or ebikes. I’ve seen people litter, and it’s rarely from either of those vehicles.
No one has ANY right to hit a child, period! How can you justify hitting a child for any reason?!
@JLeslie It’s actually mostly teenagers. It’s very rare to find trash on nature trails here. for every person who litters there are like 20 people willing to pick up after them.
@Blackwater_Park It doesn’t surprise me that teenagers are littering. I’d say mostly I’ve seen teenagers as well, but also so many smokers think nothing of throwing their cig butts on the ground, and some foreigners seem to not think twice about it.
Mostly, I don’t see a lot of litter the places I live or spend time in. When I see someone litter I usually think how can they be so oblivious when they are in such a litter free place? Some people maybe assume there are people to clean it up.
I’ll never forget walking on the street (sidewalk) on Miami Beach and a man walking in front of me threw his drink cup on the ground. I could not believe it. Something like that is so rare that I remember it to this day.
In high school a friend of my boyfriend was fined $100 for throwing a cup out of the car window. My boyfriend was driving, the cop pulled him over, and ticketed the passenger. He was a teenager.
When I was a young girl in the 1970’s there were ads on TV not to litter. I don’t see anything like that anymore. Maybe because there is less of a problem now? I don’t know if there is less of a problem.
@jca2 That was another blast from the past! So many names on there. Jellies I miss. :(
@JLeslie: I just scrolled through that thread and other than me, I think there are only four of those Jellies who commented that are still here (and of the four, one is here with a different name and one is you).
I think it’s fine as long as they have a few minutes to snarf down lunch. Community/school service is better than sitting in detention.
I’d modify it so that when the total number of lates reaches 10 then the whole class are sent out litter picking.
I think it should be two times per term.
@gorillapaws A paddle by the principal is not scary at all compared to what parents do if you’re disrespectful at school. Farm kids are raised differently, perhaps a cultural difference.
@KNOWITALL: I’m not passing judgement on a personal level. I’m just saying on a professional level, in NYS, this is not acceptable.
@RayaHope exactly, this will make students embarrassed. I see this happening at my school almost daily, the look on the student’s faces and body language says it all.
Embarrassment can be a useful tool to shape behavior. Unfortunately, it can be psychologically destructive too.
@JLeslie however sometimes in terms of being late, it does not happen because of students. This happened to me just yesterday, I was late 3 times in 2 weeks by accident. First time was being lost in the school as I was trying to find my first classroom, second time was road block and third time was because one of the school gates are locked in the morning and I was unaware of it, so I had to walk to the other side of school which took 15–20 minutes long.
This punishment is still very far, I was so embarrassed for 45 minutes walking in school picking up garbage everywhere, no matter what reason I gave to the deans for being late, they did not care.
Why is there trash everywhere? You mean trash in the trash cans (bins)?
@JLeslie well there are aren’t trash everywhere, it’s just that we have about 3000 students in our school and lots of them don’t help clean the school, whether it’s new litter or old. Usually there would be multiple students picking up trash but because it was only me yesterday, I happened to fill up almost 2 buckets.
@Lion_Zigon87 I wish I was with you so we could go to the office and complain! This punishment is unacceptable:(
This may be harder because you’re new, but you could always try to get a bunch of kids to also pick up trash at lunch even when you’re not being punished—like when a kid gets chemo and so the rest of her classmates shave their heads too to support her. If everyone did it, it would lose its “shame factor.”
@gorillapaws the thing is I tried doing it, I asked a bunch of my classmates if they could help me and most of them were keen but the deans did not allow it.
@Lion_Zigon87 I’d do it anyways. Are they going to expel you for cleaning the campus’ litter? It’s like an eco-rebellion. If the admin gives you guys shit, just call the press.
@Lion_Zigon87: Maybe I missed it but I didn’t see if you posted where you go to school (what state if in the US or is it in another country?) Someone asked you above but you didn’t reply.
@jca2 I did just through messaging.
@Lion_Zigon87 I saw your private message but it did not state where you are from.
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