Locked away, in complete solitude, for hours on end, left to their own means, with no one to ask for help or guidance apart from the supervisor, is a student receiving in school suspension as punishment for minimal offences.

Any high school student has likely been subject to some form of discipline or punishment for something absurd they may have done. The severity of their punishment can vary depending upon the severity of their infraction. They could be assigned anything from a short, after school detention, to the most severe, expulsion. The question is, is the crime substantial to the punishment; if so, does the punishment cause more harm than good?

The problem with these forms of punishments is that in many circumstances, it is giving the student exactly what they want. Does it not seem counterproductive to kick a student out of school for not showing up to school? Most of the students who receive out of school suspension, view it as a mini vacation rather than an actual punishment.

Perhaps instead of assigning punishments to students, leaving them feeling inferior and unappreciated, create a program in which troubled students still receive some sort of punishment, but the punishment would teach the student why what he or she did was wrong. Students should not be taught to fear those superior to themselves, rather, taught the desire to seek the truth.

Not only are punishments ineffective, they also further impede on the student’s ability to get their work done, or leave students to their own accords often resulting in the student simply not doing their work. There are many reasons why a student might not be getting their work done Either the student does not understand what they are being asked to do, or, have a low work ethic. Both of these circumstances are drastically worsened by the current methods of punishment. The student being punished is stripped away from all of their resources and support systems, leaving them with no way of getting help. This is the complete opposite for a student who does not understand their work, or simply does not want to do their work.

The student should be placed in an environment that is supportive and that meets their specific needs. The student should get help specifically based on what they have been struggling with or getting in trouble for. The trouble is being able to do so on a case by case scenario for each individual student. This could be done by creating a new punishment system, or forms of punishment, that would meet these criteria and help the students better themselves rather than breeding hostility amongst those disciplined.