What's "in school suspension"? Like detention or something? You still go to school, but they make you not go to class? All-day study hall? Sit in the office until dismissal?

I'm having a hard time picturing it...

You sit in a room and do your classwork. All day. Lunch too.

Okay, so I WAS picturing it correctly.

...they just didn't have that when I was a schoolkid.

Me neither. But changing times, there's not usually a parent home any more.

Well, I never really understood the point of a suspension, anyway...

"You mean I don't have to spend the next week incarcerated in the state-sponsored indoctrination center? ...score!"

Yanno?

Yep.

This way, they're sitting there with a teacher over their ass making them work, they're not allowed to speak, they have to sit facing forward, feet on the floor, only one book and piece of paper and pen on the desk at any given time, their bathroom breaks are scheduled, they eat lunch there as well. It's PUNISHMENT.

Sounds like it would probably teach 'em a thing or three.

I was only ever suspended once, it wasn't my fault, and my parents did nothing about it; it was a vacation.

I doubt it will, actually.

Hillsdale had In-House Suspension.

Even though the rules are set, they're rarely followed very well. Most people don't really care. They just sit there and fake work and just relax most of the day. It's barely punishment. It's a stupid one at that.

Go to class, do the work, have LUNCH AND AFTER SCHOOL DETENTION. THAT is the way to do it. But no. Teachers bitch and moan about it. "Wahh I wanna have lunch -break-, I wanna go hooome."

Hey man. It's your JOB. Friggen pussies.

p.s. Sorry. I know teaching's a hard job.

I just would like to see punishment to be more like it's supposed to be.

School sucks anyways, why just let them sit outside of class? >.<;

Trust me. In Ponder, they don't get away with dick.

Remember, this is a school district that paddles, too.

Also, there are three teachers in the ISS class at all times, and rarely more than 5 kids. Hard to get away with anything with that kind of ratio!

their bathroom breaks are scheduled

I hope this part is negotiable based on medical needs of the child.

The rest of it seems like punishment enough.

I'm sure that a kid with kidney troubles or diarrhea would get a pass on that part. They punish them, they don't abuse them.

That being said, it's good they're scheduled with MY kid. He never "needs" the bathroom more than when he's being punished. Has to go every twenty minutes. Amazing how when he's NOT in trouble, he only needs to go every few hours!

I got whacked in the back of the head with a book before. Back in middle school. Jack and I were fooling around and we accidentally (and I mean that) knocked over Sophie's binder. Fortunately it was a zip-up one, so ntohing fell out. But anyways, so I picked it up and put it back on the table, and Jack and I went back to being idiots, right? No harm done.

Sophie comes up suddenly, grabs her binder and WHACKS me in the head.

"WHAT THE FUCK?"

"WHY WERE YOU TOUCHING MY STUFF?"

"I WAS PICKING UP! IT FELL."

"YOU WERE TOUCHING IT YOU BITCH :: smacks again ::" Go figure, I didn't go to the principal or anything.

God she was a bitch in middle school. I wonder how bitchy she is now a days.

Hmmm, he picked the book outta the trash AND hit someone with it. Sounds like he may need a few lessons in How To Clean Out Garbage Cans at home. He may even have to clean & wipe Every Book In Your House And Replace It On the Shelf. School has already taken care of school-punishment. In my school in-school suspension(ISS) is serious business and most of our kids hate it. As you mentioned, there is nothing fun in there, eyes front, no talking, no getting up, no puttin your head down. In fact,the ISS motto is "You *don't* want to go there."

I always tell parents, you can't take this stuff personally. You don't get credit when they do something great and you don't get blamed when then do something stoopid. Kids, especially teens, will make their own decisions. And sometimes the decision is dumb. I figure as long as it doesn't have permanent life-altering consequences you hafta let the chips fall where they may.

Good luck from a mom whose son was well known as the LunchRoom Pirate(he stole other kids' food!) He routinely skipped class so he could go to lunch. If anybody was looking for John, they knew to check the cafeteria. He's 22 now and so far hasn't spent a night in jail or gotten anybody pregnant *thumbs up!* Sean will live through this and probably will come up with something even worse. But that's another post for another day. God bless you!

Thanks for the encouragement :)

Book cleaning sounds like a really good idea. I'll talk with Sam about that. :)

Definitely he needs to learn to take better care of books!

Oh... and... uhm... refrain from committing violence against his schoolmates too of course ;D

LOL!

I had ISS 4 times back in high school. I actually preferred it over going to class. I was able to do my work without interuption and could read a book of my choosing when it was done. As long as we were quiet, we were allowed to read when we were done with all the schoolwork. It was......... peaceful for me.

Then again, I had major issues with so many teachers / other students in class back then that any escape was welcomed. The other kids in ISS were at least a lot less judgemental and asshole-ish than my real classmates.



But hopefully Sean learns more from it than I did. It sounds like he doesn't really want to go to it, whereas if I could've gotten away with it I would've lived there.

I agree with whoever commented about cleaning out trash cans and cleaning up the bookshelves at home. Might get the point across that trash cans are gross and stuff that's not supossed to be there need cleaned immediately and that books are NOT weapons, but to be respected.


*hugs* I know you'll do what you think best for him and I wish you the best of luck with all of this.

Sean will not be allowed to read, as for him, reading is a pure pleasure, and he would get all of his work done within the first one to two hours, then bury himself in a book and wallow in pleasure.

If it's anything like when I was in school, he won't be allowed to get his work done in 1 or 2 hours - they give you the stuff by class and 1 assignment at a time and it usually took everyone in there the first day and a half to finish it - and then you were lucky if the teachers didn't send MORE work down for your ISS ass.

Though maybe it wouldn't be a bad idea to call the school and let whoever's in charge of the ISS know that Sean isn't allowed to read anything but his school books there, just in case.

Good for you and Sam. *hugs*

Ok, agreed Sam shouldn't have done that.

But as a kid I had a lot of stuff like that done to me.

So my question is, so what *would* the proper response have been?

hint: complaining to a teacher is *not* the correct answer. That makes things *worse* because it'll make the kid who gets ratted on feel like he's been unfairly targeted (stupid, but that *is* the way kid culture works).

Ignoring it often means things will escalate.

So, while the action taken was wrong, you need to find out what (if anything) is being done to the other kid. And more details on just what "horsing around" and "got fed up" really were.

Alas, I speak from a lot of experience with lose-lose situations in school. :-(

We got the full story from Sean. Apparently, Sean started the entire thing, by stealing the kid's gum. The kid asked him to give it back, Sean threw it in his face. The kid told him to pick the gum back up off the floor and give it to him, Sean threw it in his face again. After this had gone on three or four times, the kid picked up the book and dropped it in the trash. To which Sean responded by whamming him in the back of the head with said book (hardcover and over 300 pages, mind you).

Sean wasn't being bullied OR bothered by this kid. Sean was bothering him and bullying him.

Not a damn thing should be done to the other kid.

Ah. The joys of parenthood...