In School Suspension aka Solitary Confinement FOR KIDS!

[Podsnap]

5 hours ago, Bronztrooper said:

Are you sure about that?  Because I went through school in Jersey until I moved down to Florida between my sophomore and junior years and I didn't really have a choice about whether or not I could go to school (legally) until I was 16-17.  And my mom kept saying that I couldn't take out of school because the state would go after her because I wasn't going to school.

 

Honestly, this is one of the things I've seen with people who tend to tell kids to 'suck it up' when they say that they hate school.  Things in schools are much different now, and your experience is no longer an actual possibility in the vast majority of public schools in the US.  Education is seen as mandatory until you hit 16-17, by which point you're legally allowed to drop out without a parent's approval and be able to get a job (which I think is rather 'convenient').

 

And really, the most messed up part is that after you graduate high school, education becomes a luxury- and a damn expensive one at that.

 

Just remember that just because you haven't experienced it or know something who's experienced it, it doesn't mean it isn't an issue.

In New Jersey you can leave school without having to notify the school district. There's really not much anyone can do to you about it. 

 

What is described in the o.p. sounds like a bunch of adults on a power trip to me. I don't approve of it.

[Guest]

Oh wow, your punishment system in high school seemed a lot worse than mine. My school called it "in school restriction" or ISR. But it was a joke, I was in ISR all the time and I would purposely get caught skipping class so I wouldn't have to sit with assholes I didn't like in my classes. They sent my homework and tests over to me and I basically sat in a separate classroom and did work with other students who got sent to ISR. In fact, in my last years of high school they moved the ISR room to the lecture room in school (if it wasn't reserved for a class), so the seats were soooo much comfier than in your actual class since they were cushioned. But yeah, being sent to ISR never went on your record and you got to do your work anyway so....I loved it.

[Gloomy]

It's not being sent to a separate quiet room to study that I see a problem with. It's the limited bathroom breaks(honestly I probably wouldn't be able to go a 6-8 hour school day with only two bathroom breaks), and those other weird over the top things like all the cubicles are closed up and monitored with a camera. 

[Cimmerian]

On 4/20/2018 at 11:21 AM, tobi.is.a.gross.nerd said:

I have received 5 days of ISS because I was "skipping class"

In reality, I was making up work for another teacher during a different class period (with permission from both teachers) BUT, since I was working on the project in the library verses in the classroom it was considered skipping and landed me 5 days of solitary confinement. 

Or, sorry. ISS.

 

To explain why I say it is solitary confinement:

Well... that sort of makes sense; the first rule of schools is they love their rules and will screw with you over a technicality. So, yeah; not technically being with the other teacher or having a note from your "make-up work" teacher is likely to get you screwed over (at least in any of the schools I went to). I once got in trouble and punished only because they'd already punished someone else for a similar situation despite them essentially admitting that I didn't do anything wrong, so they essentially said, so I say this as someone who dealt with inane school bullshit.

 

The closed in 4-sided cubicles with cameras is a bit... over the top compared to the ISSs I've heard of, but if the school isn't good about transferring problem kids to a separate facility (or doesn't have one) or waits too long to put them in a sort of punishment area then it sort of makes sense because they'd need that sort of strictness and oversight for the extreme cases. At least based on what typically got kids here thrown into ISS and eventually suspended to the school dedicated to ISS-regulars or worse.

Half of that sounds like it's because your school doesn't have a facility for the kids they'd like to send elsewhere who would need that sort of strict monitoring (regular fighters /drug problems/ severe inability to follow instructions and talk back or yell at anyone around), and ISS isn't supposed to be as lenient as detention so it's going to be much more strict. The other half (no electronics, your work monitored, writing essays) is par for the course when you're in any sort of trouble/detention.

 

And the lunch thing is extremely typical for a lot of school situations (test days for instance). Did they not tell you that you'd be in ISS before they shoved you into it for the day? That'd be a little problematic, but otherwise, yeah you usually have to bring your own lunch or deal with what's provided--- that's standard.

 

Does it suck? Of course. Welcome to the school system, prepare to deal with assholes and battle over minutia in any school you may attend in the future and expect it in jobs.

[tobi.is.a.gross.nerd]

On 4/20/2018 at 9:41 PM, Skullery Maid said:

Have you ever sat for a day long exam? Exact same thing. It's not solitary confinement for crying out loud, it's at most a handful of hours of quiet studying. 

Of course, testing is required and is a similar environment. That being said:

You are allowed any appropriate number of restroom breaks during tests.

They give small 10-15 minute talking/stretching breaks so you can stimulate your mind instead of sitting all day in silence.

The students are checked to see if they have allergies or are lactose intolerant and are allowed lunches that they can actually eat. 

You are not missing classes during that time because everyone in the school is going through the testing on the same day. 

You are allowed to do more than stare at a white wall when you are finished with your work, such as read, draw, write, etc. 

You are in an open room with every other student, not a whiteout box.

You are entirely correct. It is similar. But they have plenty of very large differences

[(A) & A]

Seems different than when I was in ISS,  Granted, I graduate sixteen years ago but it was pretty much the cool off place for you.  And while you were supposed to stay there and only leave supervised... It really wasn't that hard to just get up go to the bathroom.   Then again, I only got ISS for fighting and being away from everyone else was a great thing.

[seneca]

Hate to tell you one of those "back in my day" stories, but here goes. Our internal suspension was in the old rifle range. That happened to be next to the furnace room. Needless to say, it was HOT. I swear they did it on purpose just to make our lives miserable.  Students preferred getting external suspension.

[Guest]

On 4/23/2018 at 5:37 AM, tobi.is.a.gross.nerd said:

Of course, testing is required and is a similar environment. That being said:

You are allowed any appropriate number of restroom breaks during tests.

They give small 10-15 minute talking/stretching breaks so you can stimulate your mind instead of sitting all day in silence.

The students are checked to see if they have allergies or are lactose intolerant and are allowed lunches that they can actually eat. 

You are not missing classes during that time because everyone in the school is going through the testing on the same day. 

You are allowed to do more than stare at a white wall when you are finished with your work, such as read, draw, write, etc. 

You are in an open room with every other student, not a whiteout box.

You are entirely correct. It is similar. But they have plenty of very large differences

You've never sat for a long exam then, clearly. 

 

Let's also be clear that ISS is punishment. Not supposed to be fun. 

 

Let's also be clear that just because they say no breaks ever, it doesn't make it true. If you have an emergency that is exacerbated by their refusal to take a break, you can sue them. They have to make case by case assessments. They aren't going to tell the students that, tho. 

 

[Bronztrooper]

I just remembered the time when the school my sister went to tried to punish her for wearing skinny jeans.

 

Now, here are the things to know about my sister: She's about 5 ft tall and has weighed less than 100lbs for the last 5 years (despite her trying to actually gain weight).  This means she's short and very skinny.  Technically the jeans she was wearing were skinny jeans, but on her they fit like a regular pair of jeans.  My mom had to explain that to the school a few times before they finally backed off about it.  iirc, this was when my sister was in middle school.

[Podsnap]

It's weird that people think the kids who home school are sheltered and uncool and that the public school kids are the cool, tough kids.  It's the public school kids who have to ask permission to stand up or go the bathroom and who, if they don't attend a class they aren't interested in, have to spend all day sitting in time-out with their toilet breaks being monitored. I've always thought this was strange.

[Marrow]

Sounds a little intense for what I assume is a first time offense like skipping class; this coming from a guy who set fireworks off in the bathroom and only got 7 days detention.

[Bronztrooper]

Just now, Marrow said:

Sounds a little intense for what I assume is a first time offense like skipping class; this coming from a guy who set fireworks off in the bathroom and only got 7 days detention.

lol, my dad used to throw rocks at the windows of the main office when he was in high school.

 

Then again, when I went to school in Florida, weed wasn't exactly hard to come by.  People would smoke it in the bathrooms and one time a kid on the bus was practically waving a bag of it around when we were waiting to go home (I was at the back of the bus and he was in the middle, yet I could still smell it).  Though, from the middle of the school year until the end, fights during lunch periods were so common that the principal made an announcement to the entire school saying that anyone who got into a fight would be expelled with no exceptions.  Didn't seem to have an impact.

[Muledeer]

Just another cog in the "school to prison pipeline"

[SorryNotSorry]

17 hours ago, podsnap said:

It's weird that people think the kids who home school are sheltered and uncool and that the public school kids are the cool, tough kids.  It's the public school kids who have to ask permission to stand up or go the bathroom and who, if they don't attend a class they aren't interested in, have to spend all day sitting in time-out with their toilet breaks being monitored. I've always thought this was strange.

Man oh man.

 

If I'd have been lucky enough to be homeschooled as a kid, I'd have thought I'd died and gone to heaven.

 

Now this is even stranger: say all the students participate in a walkout or a ditch day. When they get back to class, the school administrators would be so angry, they'd announce that the WHOLE SCHOOL will be suspended for this little stunt!!! Which would be what a lot of the kids wanted in the first place.

 

It's LAUSD school administration logic.