Is suspension really a punishment?

Page 1 of 1 [ 8 posts ] 

MagicMeerkat
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 11 Jun 2011
Age: 37
Gender: Female
Posts: 2,821
Location: Mel's Hole

30 Nov 2017, 8:28 am

I mean for very young children? Like kindergarten through 6th grade? In high school, I can see how suspension might be a punishment but for a grade schooler? After I had been suspended the first time and got to stay home from school, I CONSTANTLY was trying to get in trouble in order to get suspended again. My parents never let me watch TV or anything like that on the day I was suspended, but it didn't matter I was happy to be home, away from bullies.

I think the school did catch on because I did once receive an in-school suspension and that wasn't as bad as they made it out to be either. I was just in a supply classroom for most of the day, doing my usual schoolwork and a supply teacher would come in now and then to check on me. Again, I was by myself and away from the bullies so I actually kind of enjoyed it. So

Anyway, is suspension actually a punishment FOR the student who doesn't want to be there in the first place?


_________________
Spell meerkat with a C, and I will bite you.


League_Girl
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 4 Feb 2010
Gender: Female
Posts: 27,205
Location: Pacific Northwest

30 Nov 2017, 9:35 am

I never understood it either. Most kids don't want to be in school so how is even suspending them a punishment? I was once suspended when I was in 6th grade and we didn't even know it because the incident took place at home with a teacher and she didn't come back and none of us knew why. There are certain laws out there about suspending a special ed student and the way they did it, they broke the law.

But on the other hand my son loves school and would be very upset if he got told he couldn't go but for my daughter, she wouldn't notice so a school suspension wouldn't work because she's three.


_________________
Son: Diagnosed w/anxiety and ADHD. Also academic delayed.

Daughter: NT, no diagnoses.


ASDMommyASDKid
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 27 Oct 2011
Gender: Female
Posts: 3,666

30 Nov 2017, 4:15 pm

The fact that it is on your record is the punishment. After x number of suspensions they can move on to different things like expulsion. It is an interim step in a line of punishments that can end with expulsion and it allows them to say they tried suspension first. Also it gives the class the benefit of the child not being there, which is often the main objective, if the child in question is being punished for being disruptive. It enables them to take the kid out of class to prevent further disruptions. I don't know if they even care -that- much if the child views it as a reward, although they do hope it will be viewed as unpleasant.



cubedemon6073
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 7 Nov 2008
Age: 45
Gender: Male
Posts: 4,953

01 Dec 2017, 9:39 am

ASDMommyASDKid wrote:
The fact that it is on your record is the punishment. After x number of suspensions they can move on to different things like expulsion. It is an interim step in a line of punishments that can end with expulsion and it allows them to say they tried suspension first. Also it gives the class the benefit of the child not being there, which is often the main objective, if the child in question is being punished for being disruptive. It enables them to take the kid out of class to prevent further disruptions. I don't know if they even care -that- much if the child views it as a reward, although they do hope it will be viewed as unpleasant.


I get what you're saying. The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.



DW_a_mom
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 22 Feb 2008
Gender: Female
Posts: 13,683
Location: Northern California

12 Dec 2017, 4:28 pm

I had to be super careful with my son not to set consequences that would play out more as a reward than a punishment.

Punishment isn't necessarily the point, however. It is more about setting the pattern, that actions have consequences, and those consequences will be consistently applied. I would frame a suspension as having the intent of making a child think about how his actions negatively impact others. If you cannot be in a situation without negatively impacting others, you should not be in that situation. So while someone like my son probably would have seen the day as something enjoyable, I would have busily connected it to all sorts of things he would not want to have happen long term.


_________________
Mom to an amazing young adult AS son, plus an also amazing non-AS daughter. Most likely part of the "Broader Autism Phenotype" (some traits).


League_Girl
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 4 Feb 2010
Gender: Female
Posts: 27,205
Location: Pacific Northwest

13 Dec 2017, 1:17 pm

DW_a_mom wrote:
I had to be super careful with my son not to set consequences that would play out more as a reward than a punishment.

Punishment isn't necessarily the point, however. It is more about setting the pattern, that actions have consequences, and those consequences will be consistently applied. I would frame a suspension as having the intent of making a child think about how his actions negatively impact others. If you cannot be in a situation without negatively impacting others, you should not be in that situation. So while someone like my son probably would have seen the day as something enjoyable, I would have busily connected it to all sorts of things he would not want to have happen long term.


I understand that for some kids the punishments have to fit the crime. Not all kids connect punishments to their behavior so they think you are just being mean and they do the same thing again and again. Sounds like your son was one of these kids.


_________________
Son: Diagnosed w/anxiety and ADHD. Also academic delayed.

Daughter: NT, no diagnoses.


BetwixtBetween
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 25 Feb 2014
Age: 41
Gender: Female
Posts: 3,543
Location: Mostly in my head

13 Dec 2017, 2:41 pm

Suspension is supposed to be serious thing. Kind of like a last resort. It's supposed to indicate to everyone who hears about it that this kid is a serious problem and in need of some serious supervision and discipline. By suspending a child (at home), the idea is that the parents will step in and actually do something (ground you, take away all toys/privilages, and have you do chores to earn everything back). That's how it played out when I was a young kid. That is sadly not how it played out as I got older, and that that is not how it tends to play out now. Also, it seems like more schools don't view it as a major, serious, last resort sort of thing.

I was never suspended when I was in school. The kids who were suspended were viewed as "the bad kids" and "headed the wrong way." You had to do something big to get suspended. Littler things resulted in phone calls/notes home, parent/teacher meetings, trips to the principal's office, staying in during recess, detention (after school or on a weekend), etc. I think I was sent to the principal's office once in all my schooling. I never got detention, but I heard from those who did that it was pretty bad. When I was a little kid, I remember some teachers would say they would record things in our Permanent Records, but by the time I was in middle school (in a different place) none of the teachers used that threat. Nobody I know who became a school teacher uses that as a threat.



MagicMeerkat
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 11 Jun 2011
Age: 37
Gender: Female
Posts: 2,821
Location: Mel's Hole

18 Dec 2017, 5:47 pm

League_Girl wrote:
DW_a_mom wrote:
I had to be super careful with my son not to set consequences that would play out more as a reward than a punishment.

Punishment isn't necessarily the point, however. It is more about setting the pattern, that actions have consequences, and those consequences will be consistently applied. I would frame a suspension as having the intent of making a child think about how his actions negatively impact others. If you cannot be in a situation without negatively impacting others, you should not be in that situation. So while someone like my son probably would have seen the day as something enjoyable, I would have busily connected it to all sorts of things he would not want to have happen long term.


I understand that for some kids the punishments have to fit the crime. Not all kids connect punishments to their behavior so they think you are just being mean and they do the same thing again and again. Sounds like your son was one of these kids.


I was one of those kids too.

BetwixtBetween wrote:
Suspension is supposed to be serious thing. Kind of like a last resort. It's supposed to indicate to everyone who hears about it that this kid is a serious problem and in need of some serious supervision and discipline. By suspending a child (at home), the idea is that the parents will step in and actually do something (ground you, take away all toys/privilages, and have you do chores to earn everything back). That's how it played out when I was a young kid. That is sadly not how it played out as I got older, and that that is not how it tends to play out now. Also, it seems like more schools don't view it as a major, serious, last resort sort of thing.

I was never suspended when I was in school. The kids who were suspended were viewed as "the bad kids" and "headed the wrong way." You had to do something big to get suspended. Littler things resulted in phone calls/notes home, parent/teacher meetings, trips to the principal's office, staying in during recess, detention (after school or on a weekend), etc. I think I was sent to the principal's office once in all my schooling. I never got detention, but I heard from those who did that it was pretty bad. When I was a little kid, I remember some teachers would say they would record things in our Permanent Records, but by the time I was in middle school (in a different place) none of the teachers used that threat. Nobody I know who became a school teacher uses that as a threat.


I don't think my school had detentions/Saturday school. I only heard about those in cartoons and TV shows. I only heard "This is going to go on your permanent record!" in cartoons as well. Actually, I only heard the permanent record threat in one cartoon in particular which had a surreal tone anyway. My brothers went to the same school but they never got suspensions, detentions or Saturday school, but then my brothers were the epitome of the term "goody-two-shoes" and never got in trouble. They were popular and never got bullied either...or at least not the kind of bullying I got where I was ganged up on and the teachers sided with the bullies.


_________________
Spell meerkat with a C, and I will bite you.