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Should schools be able to punish students for summer behavior?
A couple of teen age girls sent risque pictures of themselves over the internet during summer vacation. No school property was involved. Now the school wants to punish them. How could the school do this?
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November 01, 2009 02:05 AM
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In my opinion, schools have but one function and purpose, to provide fundamental education to children relevant subject matters. Everything else falls within the scope of the parents or guardians.
Anything that does not directly, key word here is directly, affect the school and the students under its charge in the discourse of this function should not be under their domain to punish, discipline or intervene with in any way.
Once exceptions are granted, permitting this sort of disciplinary action to be assigned to collateral behavior from the students, then that's when the parental responsibility of disciplining their own children is being infringed upon. Many might say, but it's for the good of the kids, or it's for the good of society; that may be so, but it's not good for individual parental responsibility or the basic principle of individual freedom.
In this particular case, if they were my daughters, believe me, they would have received stern punishment from me, their mother; and I would not want any other institution to aggregate or minimize my disciplinary punishment.
Anything that does not directly, key word here is directly, affect the school and the students under its charge in the discourse of this function should not be under their domain to punish, discipline or intervene with in any way.
Once exceptions are granted, permitting this sort of disciplinary action to be assigned to collateral behavior from the students, then that's when the parental responsibility of disciplining their own children is being infringed upon. Many might say, but it's for the good of the kids, or it's for the good of society; that may be so, but it's not good for individual parental responsibility or the basic principle of individual freedom.
In this particular case, if they were my daughters, believe me, they would have received stern punishment from me, their mother; and I would not want any other institution to aggregate or minimize my disciplinary punishment.
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November 01, 2009 12:27 AM
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They shouldn't be able to. What a student does outside of school that doesn't involve school property is the parents responsibility not the schools. As a parent I'd have thrown a tissy over this. Sure, what the girls did was dangerous and stupid, but it had absolutely nothing to do with the school in the first place.
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November 01, 2009 12:46 AM
personal experience and opinion as student counselor Helpful Answer? (0)
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I just wrote long long answer for this, and firefox crashed on me.
My answer is, depends on the school policy, which should be notified to the parents at the beginning of the school. Private schools have their own policy to protect their image from being tarnished. State school might punish them (with proper punishment that serves to educate the students, not for the sake of punishment) but should not expel them because these kids needs education and lack of education will worsen their behavior. If you don’t educate them, how can they expect to make a decent living? Being a porn star?
In Chinese proverb, there is a saying that a student’s misbehavior is also the responsibility of the teachers. So it’s not fair for the school to just let a student go, especially without warning, just to keep their image clean. It is part of their fault after all. But keep in mind that when you enter a private school, you’ve agreed to their policy and rules. (remember the case about a student get expelled from dancing? http://content.usatoday.com/communities/ondeadline/index/2009/05/prom-date-costs-student-graduation-date.html
I personally don’t agree with punishing them, much less expelling them. Send them to counseling is mandatory though.
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My answer is, depends on the school policy, which should be notified to the parents at the beginning of the school. Private schools have their own policy to protect their image from being tarnished. State school might punish them (with proper punishment that serves to educate the students, not for the sake of punishment) but should not expel them because these kids needs education and lack of education will worsen their behavior. If you don’t educate them, how can they expect to make a decent living? Being a porn star?
In Chinese proverb, there is a saying that a student’s misbehavior is also the responsibility of the teachers. So it’s not fair for the school to just let a student go, especially without warning, just to keep their image clean. It is part of their fault after all. But keep in mind that when you enter a private school, you’ve agreed to their policy and rules. (remember the case about a student get expelled from dancing? http://content.usatoday.com/communities/ondeadline/index/2009/05/prom-date-costs-student-graduation-date.html
I personally don’t agree with punishing them, much less expelling them. Send them to counseling is mandatory though.
personal experience and opinion as student counselor Helpful Answer?
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November 04, 2009 01:59 AM
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No, it wasn't the school's business. The school should leave the punishment up to the parents. I'm sure there are tons of different school rules broken over summer vacation that the school doesn't bring up or punish for when school starts again.
Aren't schools usually complaining that parents don't take enough responsibility for their kids? In this situation the parents didn't even have a choice. Making the girls apologize in front of a bunch of male staff members was punishment enough, the embarrassment of people knowing about those pictures and the entire situation will probably haunt those girls for the rest of their lives.
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Aren't schools usually complaining that parents don't take enough responsibility for their kids? In this situation the parents didn't even have a choice. Making the girls apologize in front of a bunch of male staff members was punishment enough, the embarrassment of people knowing about those pictures and the entire situation will probably haunt those girls for the rest of their lives.
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