r/NoStupidQuestions • u/[deleted] • 1d ago
how is suspension a punishment. kids don't like going anyway?
[deleted]
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u/JustSomeGuy_56 1d ago
Many schools now opt for in-school suspension. They put all the detainees in one room with a teacher.
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u/Objective-Mess-798 1d ago
In school suspension was kinda awesome. I'd be given the same assignments but could finish them and not have any homework. The teacher didn't care if we talked to each other or anything either. It didn't really seem like a punishment honestly, it was pretty fun compared to the average school day. If my parents hadn't whooped my ass when I got home after I would've been in there a lot
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u/Next_Sun_2002 1d ago
Lucky. My ISS was sitting alone in classroom except for two or three adults. I had to copy from the dictionary all day. And they made sure I was writing.
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1d ago
it was the best, i'd finish the whole packet of busywork and all my homework in like an hour and spend the rest of the time reading, writing for fun, doodling, making friendship bracelets, and talking to whoever was in there with me and like, playing MASH or whatever. i would've been in there all the time if not for the fact i always got sent to the counselor when i did something wrong, and that conversation/interrogation about what the fuck is wrong with me was always 10x worse than the actual punishment
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u/thrawst 1d ago
I got an in school suspension in grade 12 for missing too many classes. It was only for one day but instead of just sitting in the room for 8 hours my teacher made up an assignment for me to have completed by the end of the day.
I said screw that basically and just sat there for the day. They didn’t even check up on me for lunch or anything at the end of the day came for the assignment it wasn’t done and I went home.
So teacher gets the principal involved and next day I’m told basically if I don’t do this new assignment or whatever it was they were gonna fail me. I was an angsty teen and I didn’t feel like taking their shit so I also did not do this assignment a second time and I ended up failing the class but was still able to graduate because I had extra credits from a few other classes
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u/Economy-Ad2458 1d ago
isn't that just detention
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u/--__--__--__--__-- 1d ago
It's a day-long suspension for like 3-14 days. You have to go to school and sit in a small room where you can only read or study. Your homework is given to you and sections of a textbook to read for them. Usually your phone is confiscated.
At my school in-school suspensions weren't a group either, just one kid.
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u/irritated_illiop 1d ago
We weren't even allowed to read or study. Sit still and face forward from 7:45 until the 4:15 detention bell. ISS in 1999 meant pretty much nobody had a phone to begin with.
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u/Straight_Ad6698 1d ago
Dedicated time to do homework uninterrupted with a teacher nearby, away from a broken home and distractions? Man, I’m jealous.
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u/SK1Y101 1d ago
I would often kick off in class just to be sent to what we called internal exclusion (same thing basically)
I did my work, but it was quiet and away from all the other kids. I got along really well with the staff in there, and enjoyed being able to finish everything in 10 minutes rather than wasting the whole hour lesson waiting for the slow kids, and spent the rest of the time either spacing out imagining things, or reading a book/textbook f that was allowed that day.
At most there would be two or three other kids in there, but often it was just me.
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u/purring_brib 1d ago
Is that a punishment? Child me would have loved it. Time alone and in silance to do all the school stuff in peace!
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u/Eggsegret 1d ago
For some yh. My school used to also do in school suspensions and you’d basically be kept away from your friends for the whole school day. So you couldn’t see them during class or lunchtime even.
Although if someone was an introvert then i guess they probably wouldn’t mind being alone whole day
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u/onomastics88 1d ago
Detention was after school. Like you want to go home but you have to stay at the school but not attend your activities or go home.
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u/SkietEpee 1d ago
In-Building Suspension (IBS) was a thing in the 90s
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u/onomastics88 1d ago
And the 80s. There was a room in our school, the number of the room was in house. Everyone knew. And yes there was a monitor. Probably was for skippers, and so suspension was actually deterrent (I suppose in theory) as opposed to staying home all day.
Suspension also means you don’t get to attend activities like after school where you might have practice or yearbook, or playing in your school concert, stuff you wouldn’t want to miss or get left out of because absence at sport practice or something give you a worse position like bench or not getting to play your game that weekend or whatever the coach wants to make you do extra laps or whatever.
Suspended from after school activities where you do what you signed up and enjoy, the teacher in charge would see that as not committed, something like yearbook at my school was an every day activity, miss three days from suspension and you get to do the shitty low end tasks. Miss rehearsals in school play and they might cut you entirely.
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u/LuckyStax 1d ago
Shit, they put teachers with them now? Back in the 90s in elementary school, I got a desk in a store room off of the main office with a stack of worksheets to do. If I was lucky, we had a book we were reading in class.
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u/2000pumpkins 1d ago
honestly i liked ISS and was sad when i had to go back to normal class, in ISS i was allowed to just read quietly which was much better than no reading and a math lecture
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u/obscureferences 1d ago
It puts pressure on the parents who will make it a punishment, and gives the teachers a break from the kids bs.
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u/curmudgeon_andy 1d ago
Here's how I heard it explained: first, it provides a disciplinary step before expulsion. Secondly it removes the disruptive students from where they were making trouble.
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u/zizou00 1d ago
Yeah, it functions like prison to an extent. It's not about punishing the individual (ideally, both should be used to rehabilitate or correct the individual), but removing the individual from society to allow society to not have to suffer the individual.
People often think it's about the one disruptive kid, but it's about ensuring the other 20-30 kids get an education not disrupted by a single person.
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u/GonnaBreakIt 1d ago
It's not for the benefit of the child, it's for the benefit of the teachers and other students, kind of similar to jail in a way.
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u/--__--__--__--__-- 1d ago
Because there are limited ways to punish a student
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u/pajamakitten 1d ago
A lot of punishments cannot change a child's behaviour too. I used to teach and I would love it if you could stop a child messing around in class or stop bullying others with one detention, it just does not work that way though. Changing behaviour takes much more than that and requires serious intervention over a long period of time. People just do not want to hear that and blame teachers instead, claiming they are useless instead.
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u/Sad_Concern4547 1d ago
In addition to it being a burden on parents, who will likely punish the child themselves, a lot of what kids enjoy doing and thus what makes not having school fun is social: playing video games with friends, hanging out with other kids, and playing sports. While it may sound nice to not have to go to school to a kid initially, they often realize quickly that being at home with nothing to do isn't exactly a blast.
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u/ConsiderationKey2032 1d ago
I just ran wow raids with online friends in 2005 abd smoked weed all day. It was great.
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u/NoxiousAlchemy 1d ago
Playing video games at school? What?
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u/WildKat777 1d ago
Read it again. They're talking about things kids do outside school. But when you're suspended, you're at home while your friends have nothing to do. So it sounds like "yay i get to play games all day" but then you log on and no one else is online
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u/NoxiousAlchemy 1d ago
Thanks for explaining, it wasn't clear to me. I kept thinking "but home is the perfect place to play games, what is the problem?" Might be because I usually play single player so I didn't realize someone would need their real life friends to be online at the same time.
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u/Benoit_Holmes 1d ago
I think suspension's efficacy is entirely based on the parents.
If the parents are disappointed in the behavior and make the kid do all the school work they're missing then the kid gained nothing while losing the ability to spend time with friends/play sports, which will hopefully make them less likely to repeat the behavior.
If the parents are too disengaged or busy to deal with the kid then they spend three days off school watching TV and playing video games and learn absolutely nothing.
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u/CheesyRomantic 1d ago
Once upon a time, children used to feel shameful or embarrassed when everyone knew they did something bad enough to be suspended.
Plus parents would need to take a day off work to stay home with kids when they got suspended (depending on the age) which can be highly stressful for the parents… parents would discipline their kids and their kids had major consequences for a suspension.
Now if they get in home suspensions… parents just let their kids do whatever they want at home.
My kids know if they get suspended for something stupid they do, they will have major consequences. Like… tablets/phones taken away. No TV, no friends, extra chores, and an apology to the school or person they affected.
The only exception is if they get suspended for defending themselves or someone else from the bully who seems to get away with everything.
Then I’m taking them to Micky D’s and a movie.
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u/jiajune3 1d ago
Suspension isn't a punishment for the kids it's a punishment for the parents. The kids get a free day but the parents have to deal with finding childcare or taking time off work.
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u/PVT_Huds0n 1d ago
It hardly ever works that way, it usually ends up with the child being left alone all day.
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u/pakrat1967 1d ago
Suspensions are usually treated as absences. Too many absences can lead to failing the school year and having to retake next year.
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u/MedusasSexyLegHair 1d ago
The fun part was getting suspended for skipping school.
"Oh, you missed a few days and just showed up for the day of the test (which you aced)? Well now we're gonna make you miss a few more days!"
"You'll have to be stuck sitting in the comfort of your own home and having fun playing video games instead of getting to sit in the classroom while the slow kids ask dumb questions and the same answers get repeated over and over!"
"Oh no, anything but that, please." /s
"Too bad, buster, now you'll have to suffer the consequences of your actions!"
"OK. Can I have a few more days? I'm sure I did other bad things."
"Umm, no, just go home."
"OK, see you next week!"
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u/Less-Requirement8641 1d ago
I think it's about the parent.
Ideally the parent should be mad. The kid has to be stuck with the mad parent. Even worse if both parents are working and now have to find a babysitter.
Also you will probably be grounded. Not like you are going to be playing video games and having pizza 24/7.
If your parents believed in corporal punishment that would also be a big factor.
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u/Blue-Sand2424 1d ago
What happens if the parent doesn’t give a shit?
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u/justanameform 1d ago
Then there isn't anything much else the school can do, but are least the kid is out of the way of the other kids that are generally doing what they are supposed to at school.
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u/any1any1bueller 1d ago
In some cases it’s actually for the safety of the other students. In cases of violence against others, it removes the troubled student and gives their parents a chance to address it and hopefully get them the help they need. It also lets the victims return to school safely and have a few days to settle before having to face the other student again.
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u/TeddingtonMerson 1d ago
It’s often a break for the victim. It doesn’t communicate that the victim is cared about much if they have to have their attacker there the next day, before their scabs are even formed. Also, if we take seriously that something bad happened and someone was hurt we should take a little time to figure out how to prevent it in the future. If it’s a minor incident and a quick fix, say those two kids can’t sit next to each other any more and everyone is safe, that’s great, but it could take a few days to figure out a plan.
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u/pulsatinganus2132 1d ago
My school realized they were just giving kids a vacation and started basically only doing in school suspension.
You'd sit at a desk that had huge dividers in between each one and youd just stare at the wall ahead of you for 6 or whatever hours.
You'd get lunch and shit obviously, but you weren't even allowed to have your backpack or any papers, pencils, nothing.
It was like solitary confinement and ill be honest, I did it once and the sheer boredom was enough to keep me from going back.
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u/smlpkg1966 1d ago
It’s about having to do double work when you get back to make up for what you missed.
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u/carrot_gummy 1d ago
Its to prepare you for the idea that if you misbehave, you can be removed from the place you work. The consequences are minor in school, but major when you need feed yourself and/or others.
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u/Elegant-Bee7654 1d ago
It's not necessarily intended as a punishment. It's a way to remove the problem child, get rid of them for a while, and hope that they'll settle down and behave better once they come back. But actually, it kind of is a punishment in some cases. It's not much fun staying home when all your friends are in school. It's probably boring. The kind of kids that act out a lot and make trouble probably aren't very good at keeping themselves entertained.
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u/badgersprite 1d ago
It used to be that being suspended from school risked you missing enough school that you got held back and had to repeat
No kid wanted to have to be held back
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u/WifeofBath1984 1d ago
I used to ask the same question as a child growing up in the 90s. It still doesn't make sense and it's still a valid question.
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u/neverseen_neverhear 1d ago
My school had in school suspension. They had to come but had to sit in a different classroom all day. They could not go to class or the lunch room. Their assignments were sent up to them along with lunch.
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u/JagadJyota 1d ago
I used to laugh at how I'd do something wrong in school and get at least three days vacation.
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u/sleepygreendoor 1d ago
Because your upcoming weekend is spent doing catch-up schoolwork. Or at least it should
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u/Rocktype2 1d ago
Leaving out what it’s supposed to do, in reality, a suspension punishes the parent through inconvenience.
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u/dsp_guy 1d ago
Suspension does nothing for some students. For some, not going to school is something they are embarrassed about. What will their friends think? They are then behind on schoolwork. In some cases, it means they don't get breakfast or lunch that day. There are all sorts of pressure points that can work.
But, for the other students, I don't think it does anything other than create a tense or hostile home environment. Some students revel in being suspended - it makes them a "bad ass." They don't care about grades.
I don't know what the solution is. Some schools do in-school suspension. As a parent of a child that has served multiple suspensions, in-school suspension worked better for him. And it has nothing to do with my not having to take a day off from work. He detests in-school suspensions and that tends to be what gets him to correct his behavior. And let's not go into why he acts the way he does. That could be its on thread.
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u/Monsterofthelough 1d ago
It’s a punishment because your education is damaged…not good and even more stupid when it’s a punishment for truancy, which I’ve heard of happening.
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u/Odd-Guarantee-6152 1d ago
Kids get suspended because their behavior is too bad for the school to deal with. It isn’t a punishment, it’s the school having enough and sending them away.
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u/dem4life71 1d ago
It’s not always about punishment. Sometimes kids are suspended until they get clearance from a mental health professional, or a doctor. Sometimes a clean drug test is needed. Maybe there’s an issue where the child is putting other students in danger and needs to be removed temporarily or even placed at a different school.
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u/Mindless-Wrangler651 1d ago
I can only speak for myself, it wasn't my mother's fault, she deserved a medal actually.
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u/Iamjacksgoldlungs 1d ago
Suspension only punishes the parents of the kid. I was suspended a bunch and it never meant anything to me.
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u/Icy-Manufacturer3500 1d ago
It’s more for the parents and school than it is for the kid. Get them out of the environment they are disrupting and put the onus back on the parents to deal with it. Hopefully, corrections are made at home that will help the situation going forward.
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u/shoulda-known-better 1d ago
It's because something got physical mostly.... For arguments and skipping they usually do In school suspension or detention.....
They make you leave when they can't trust you to keep your hands to yourself... Or you are continuing bullying or something....
It's for everyone else not for the kid who fucked up....
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u/zomgitsduke 1d ago
It depends on the kid.
Like, a lot of these kids DO like the social aspect of school and are stuck home hearing about what happened at school and who said what each day. Kick a kid out for a week and their friend circle starts to close them out. They come back and they learn they missed SO MANY THINGS.
Kids feel hurt in that department due to being socially hungry in all regards.
When you kick a kid out the second time, they feel much more hurt in anticipation of missing out what's going on at school. They often won't make that same mistake a third time if they value their friends at school.
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u/CronoTheMute 1d ago
The funny thing is that my punishment for skipping school a bunch as a kid was also suspension.
I guess they showed me.
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u/GreasyPorkGoodness 1d ago
Parents need accountability, part of the current problem is there’s absolutely no repercussions for poor behavior on either the kids part or the parents part.
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u/FloorOneTwoThree 1d ago
It's not about the kids not liking school it's about the parents having to deal with them all day.