Llubica Barkovic Nicholas Yong Enc1101 10.15.

09 The Effects of High School Punishment

The punishment that high schools are using to punish their students does not seem to be working as a result of continues drug abuse and gang related activity. With the constant problems of gang related activities and drug abuse occurring on school property, it is necessary to use punishment to prevent those students from wanting to continue that same behavior. However, what many people dont realize is that our high schools are not using the appropriate punishment. Today, high schools rely on detention, suspension, and expulsion to punish misbehaved students. The problem with these types of punishments is that students look forward to being punished. Being suspended is like a dean telling the misbehaved student, youre going to be on vacation for the next week. Most students who misbehave come from parents who can careless about their child and how they behave. Sending a misbehaved student home doesnt seem to be the best way to make them behave however, an alternative problem solver would be to use in school suspension, also known as ISS. A problem with giving a student detention is that it wastes both the misbehaved student and teachers time. Detention is supposed to be a place where misbehaved students serve a certain amount of time working on homework and all electronics are banned. In reality, in detention students talk amongst each other, use their ipods and cell phones. This shows that detention serves as a social gathering rather than a punishment reason being is because teachers feel they have no control over

twenty or more misbehaved students. A drill sergeant on the other hand would intimidate misbehaved students to a point that they may just learn a valuable lesson. Misbehaved students would learn a lesson with a strict teacher who knows how to discipline compared to teachers who rather not bother with the students. Therefore, if a teacher disciplines his or her students correctly, then the student may learn a lesson from their actions. Teenagers dont seem to grab the concept of what punishment is suppose to do, reason being is because their punishment isnt intense. For example, if a student punches another student on school property an administrators duty is to suspend those students from school however, suspension is just sending the students back home for about a week. In a weeks time frame a student who is suspended is capable of experiencing drug abuse, alcohol poisoning, and sex. For instance, many teenage dropouts roam around the streets at anytime of the day and the students who are suspended from school come into contact with these bad influences. Misbehaved kids usually reflect how their parents act around the house. Anything from curse words, sexual content, and use of drugs are ways young teenagers pick up from their parents, developing the sense that these behaviors are acceptable. Furthermore, these types of parents usually can careless about how their children act in school. Expelling a student is very rare however only used when a student commits a major crime such as stealing anything worth over a hundred dollars, sex on campus, drugs, or weapons. Recently at University High School, a student named Michael Nieves was stabbed multiple times by another student and was pronounced dead moments after the incident. The student that committed the crime was expelled from school and arrested immediately. Though, the student that committed the crime was only looking for attention which led to taking another students life. Sometimes the crimes students commit arent as bad as Michael Nieves situation, however it took a students life for the

administrators to take disciplinary actions to another level. A few years ago a similar situation occurred at Evans High School, sixteen year old Jamese Jones pulled a gun to the principals head threatening to kill her. The only punishment this student received was expulsion and even that didnt last. Three years later Jamese Jones was offered the opportunity to attend another high school under the conditions of behaving on regular bases. Its always important to look out for every student no mater what their situation is however other students safety is just as important. In Jameses case, during those three years, she could have been introduced to gang related activity involving guns and drug abuse, all of which result in misbehavior. Furthermore, in some ways expulsion from school can be seen as an opportunity for those misbehaved students to continue on the wrong path to being unsuccessful. An effective way to discipline misbehaved students is in school suspension (ISS). In school suspension is when a misbehaved student has to stay in the same room all day while classes are in session to work on any homework or class work given by their teachers. This form of discipline serves to isolate the misbehaved students from the behaved ones where they have no choice but to focus on school work and have no way of creating a distraction for other students. Very few schools use in school suspension as a disciplinary action because it hasnt been proven to be effective, reason being is because the teacher watching the kids all day isnt working to prove a point. The only way for ISS to be effective is if a teacher enforces all students to work on homework and class work. The problem with ISS is that many teachers feel that its the students responsibility to act a certain way in school and those who misbehave dont deserve to make up missed class work. In order for a disciplinary action to work both the student and the teacher have to corporate. For example, a student sent to ISS will have to stay in the classroom all day and not work on anything but school work until told to take a

break or go home for the day. The teacher on the other hand, has to constantly check up on these students who are attending ISS to see if they have any questions or need someone to talk to about their behavior. Some teachers can be a students most important tool to succeeding in school whether it is discussing different ways to stop misbehaving to questions on the latest lessons. In school suspension can serve as a helpful resource for misbehaved students to learn the importance of succeeding in school as well as the other students who behave in class. Students misbehave because they are looking for attention that they dont receive at home. If sending these misbehaved students back home to a place where they arent capable of being helped is the best disciplinary action our school system can think of, then the rate of students who die from drug abuse or violence will continue to grow. There are multiple ways of keeping a student in school but well disciplined for their misbehavior however it takes time and money which are two things the school system arent willing to give up. The people who run the school system dont realize that misbehaved students are a major problem in our schools and can result in situations like Michael Nieves and Jamese Jones cases. So far detention, suspension, and expulsion have showed a small effective rate in schools around Floridas proving that a new disciplinary action needs be created or in school suspension should be enhanced. Therefore, school systems rely on the weakest forms of disciplinary action, resulting in continues unacceptable behavior due to the lack of enforcement by the teachers, who run detention and the lack of concern from the misbehaved students parents.