# Do kids still get detention in school? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 8, 2020, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-kids-still-get-detention-in-school/847613 "2020-02-08T04:21:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![lingyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d2c977/32.png) [@lingyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lingyi)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2020, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-kids-still-get-detention-in-school/847613/1 "2020-02-08T04:21:11Z")
Thought came to me today. Do kids still get detention in school? Or does “kids rights” and need to treat every student equality take it away? What about staying after class in rotation or because of detention, to sweep and mop the room as well as clapping the erasers? “Teacher, I can’t because I’m allergic to dust. Here’s my doctor’s note.”\* \*I was fairly allergic to dust and yard clippings (still am, though less so). My eyes water, nose runs and I get a headache. So I rarely got to clap the erasers. ---
**Author:** ![chela](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chela/32/21582_2.png) [@chela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chela)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2020, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-kids-still-get-detention-in-school/847613/2 "2020-02-08T04:27:49Z")
OH hell yes, no one is immune, they’ll send kindergartners home for out ot school suspension, send them to the office for in school suspension, dock their recess, etc etc. I’ve seen a young five, still a thumbsucker start wailing on an adult with his shitkickers and his little man bun coming undone. He was sent to the calm down room, to lie down on a big stuffed animal and chillax. Never to young to get detention in America. ---
**Author:** ![Rushgeekgirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rushgeekgirl/32/3715_2.png) [@Rushgeekgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rushgeekgirl)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2020, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-kids-still-get-detention-in-school/847613/3 "2020-02-08T04:45:28Z")
Yes they just call it “in school suspension” at my son’s public TN school. They have it on Saturdays and after school. I don’t know what they make them do because my son has never had to go. ---
**Author:** ![lingyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d2c977/32.png) [@lingyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lingyi)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2020, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-kids-still-get-detention-in-school/847613/4 "2020-02-08T05:16:01Z")
Interesting and good to know that there still ARE still consequences for bad behavior. But how does the after school and Saturday detention work? I’m assuming the parents have to be notified first. What if they protest? ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2020, 8:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-kids-still-get-detention-in-school/847613/5 "2020-02-08T08:16:41Z")
Oh, yes. Parents are notified. It may even be a law that parents are brought to school for any disciplinary action. In the schools my kids attended there was **no** corporal punishment. There were detention halls for regular school hours, alternative learning environment for repeat offenders. In-school suspensions for egregious behavior. Out of school suspensions for really bad stuff. As far as I could tell it was out of the class room teachers hands. He/She sent the offender to the office. That’s where punishment was handed down. ---
**Author:** ![JacobSwan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a6a055/32.png) [@JacobSwan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JacobSwan)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2020, 10:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-kids-still-get-detention-in-school/847613/6 "2020-02-08T10:59:50Z")
In the UK parents have to be given 24 hours notice of an after school detention. It’s usually just an email, but it means you can make arrangements and your child can’t hide it from you. I always said I was at chess club if I got detention as a kid so my parents never knew I’d been bad! Writing lines like Bart Simpson does in the opening credits were banned here in the 90’s. They’re repetitive and not constructive. When I briefly taught 25 years ago we used sides instead. You would tell the bad kid to write 1 or 2 sides of paper on why their behaviour was unacceptable. They hated writing it and we hated reading it. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2020, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-kids-still-get-detention-in-school/847613/7 "2020-02-08T13:10:25Z")
> [@JacobSwan](#): > > Writing lines like Bart Simpson does in the opening credits were banned here in the 90’s. They’re repetitive and not constructive. When I briefly taught 25 years ago we used sides instead. You would tell the bad kid to write 1 or 2 sides of paper on why their behaviour was unacceptable. They hated writing it and we hated reading it. In the 5th grade, I _hated_ art class. I didn’t (and still do not) see why art was a part of academia. Plus, I had zero natural artistic ability. On occasion the art teacher would make kids write, “The art room is a workshop, not a playground” if she thought they were goofing off. I had to write it often, usually 100 times. One time she caught me reading in class and told me to write it 100 times. Well, I was prepared, having written her phrase several hundred times ahead of time. Seconds after she told me to write, I was at her desk, handing her the pages. She was livid, I didn’t see the problem. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2020, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-kids-still-get-detention-in-school/847613/8 "2020-02-08T13:53:58Z")
> [@JacobSwan](#): > > In the UK parents have to be given 24 hours notice of an after school detention. It’s usually just an email, but it means you can make arrangements and your child can’t hide it from you. I always said I was at chess club if I got detention as a kid so my parents never knew I’d been bad! > > Writing lines like Bart Simpson does in the opening credits were banned here in the 90’s. They’re repetitive and not constructive. When I briefly taught 25 years ago we used sides instead. You would tell the bad kid to write 1 or 2 sides of paper on why their behaviour was unacceptable. They hated writing it and we hated reading it. We used to have to write lines many decades ago. The common process was to write the same word all the way down the page “I I I I I I …” then “will will will will …” etc. You had to be careful to get the word spacing right, if the teacher thought that’s what you did, you started over. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2020, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-kids-still-get-detention-in-school/847613/9 "2020-02-08T15:19:38Z")
What does this have to do with treating all students equally? Yes, of course we strive to treat all students equally. So when one student misbehaves, we respond in the same way as when any other student misbehaves. Nobody (at least, nobody in any position to do anything about it) has ever proposed doing away with discipline entirely in the name of “equality”. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2020, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-kids-still-get-detention-in-school/847613/10 "2020-02-08T15:21:45Z")
> [@md2000](#): > > … if the teacher thought that’s what you did, you started over. Why? What’s the logic of that? It doesn’t avoid any of the work. I don’t see why the teacher would object to it. ---
**Author:** ![Flyer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/flyer/32/7298_2.png) [@Flyer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flyer)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2020, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-kids-still-get-detention-in-school/847613/11 "2020-02-08T15:29:00Z")
In these days of zero-tolerance lunacy, when a child can be expelled for merely drawing a picture of a gun, I’m genuinely surprised that a punishment as mild as detention still exists. But I’m glad that it does. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2020, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-kids-still-get-detention-in-school/847613/12 "2020-02-08T17:45:13Z")
I looked through my high school’s current handbook and, yes, they still have detentions: 1 hour and 3 hour (Saturday detentions.) After that, there’s suspension, disciplinary probation, assignment to a discipline board, and expulsion. I actually do not have any memory of detention being around in elementary school (80s). We got punishments (like writing lines), but I don’t remember anybody staying after class. ---
**Author:** ![J-P\_L](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/j-p_l/32/3156_2.png) [@J-P\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/J-P_L)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2020, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-kids-still-get-detention-in-school/847613/13 "2020-02-08T17:52:20Z")
> [@md2000](#): > > We used to have to write lines many decades ago. The common process was to write the same word all the way down the page “I I I I I I …” then “will will will will …” etc. You had to be careful to get the word spacing right, if the teacher thought that’s what you did, you started over. We used to fasten two pencils ( or pens ) together using scotch tape or elastics, that way we could write two lines at once. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2020, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-kids-still-get-detention-in-school/847613/14 "2020-02-08T19:44:59Z")
I couldn’t be bothered to stay in my chair in 4th grade. The teacher took my chair away one morning. It gave me a reason to be up. It backfired on Ms. Washington. She gave me back my chair. Seething through her teeth, close to my face, she said “I’m bringing a belt to school in the morning” Well…I took that as a threat of violence. Told my Daddy (the USMC drill instructor). (She says she actually meant to hook me to the chair, with the belt) After his 'visit with her. I was ignored for the rest of the school year. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2020, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-kids-still-get-detention-in-school/847613/15 "2020-02-08T22:02:07Z")
> [@md2000](#): > > We used to have to write lines many decades ago. The common process was to write the same word all the way down the page “I I I I I I …” then “will will will will …” etc. You had to be careful to get the word spacing right, if the teacher thought that’s what you did, you started over. In my old books, the ‘lines’ are copied or translated from Latin or Greek or the reader. So the punishment was measurable school work. Copying “will, will, will, will” down the page (as I have done) is … well, I won’t call it stupid and pointless or vindictive, but I will say it represents a failure of the educational system. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2020, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-kids-still-get-detention-in-school/847613/16 "2020-02-09T01:10:39Z")
Yes, my 6th grade grandson got a detention during his first week of jr. HS for being late. He has to take a bus and was counting on the schedule but the bus was late. Now he takes an earlier bus and gets there a half hour early. In my day, the bus I took ran every couple minutes, but his bus is on a half hour headway. ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2020, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-kids-still-get-detention-in-school/847613/17 "2020-02-09T01:18:43Z")
> [@J-P\_L](#): > > We used to fasten two pencils ( or pens ) together using scotch tape or elastics, that way we could write two lines at once. i did that, and tried more then that. IIRC I was able to get 5 together. It was pretty obvious, but accepted. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2020, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-kids-still-get-detention-in-school/847613/18 "2020-02-09T02:03:47Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > What does this have to do with treating all students equally? Yes, of course we strive to treat all students equally. So when one student misbehaves, we respond in the same way as when any other student misbehaves. Nobody (at least, nobody in any position to do anything about it) has ever proposed doing away with discipline entirely in the name of “equality”. In our schools here, the administration said that black kids were getting detention more often than white kids. So they made it really hard for a teacher to give detention to any kid. So teachers have one less way of removing disruption from their classrooms, students don’t learn, and parents are pulling their kids and sending them to parochial or charter schools. Soon all kids will be ‘equally’ un-educated. (This is according to several friends who are teachers in the schools.) ---
**Author:** ![TSBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/77aa72/32.png) [@TSBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TSBG)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2020, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-kids-still-get-detention-in-school/847613/19 "2020-02-09T02:17:25Z")
My daughter is in a Catholic middle school (US) and they do get detentions. It isn’t much, just helping a teacher for an hour after school. But for my daughter at least the stigma of “breaking the rules” is worse than the actual punishment. Detention can be handed out for pretty minor infractions such as a uniform violation. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2020, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-kids-still-get-detention-in-school/847613/20 "2020-02-09T02:27:05Z")
I was sort of an air-head in highschool. I wandered around the halls and was late to classes, alot. At first I was sent to D-hall which happened to be in the Library. Just my cup o’ tea. I would get to reading and never leave. The librarian took a liking to me. She started getting me to classes in time. I still wandered a little bit. Most Teachers decided it was harmless enough and accepted it as just how **beck** is. I made good marks so they assumed I was learning. I’ve not changed much, I’m afraid. Alas. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-kids-still-get-detention-in-school/847613.md?page=2)