Cobb Reporter

Lovett School issued the following announcement on Mar. 24. 

When I think about detention, the first thing that comes to mind is John Bender from The Breakfast Club (an amazing movie… go watch it after you read this). He’s the classic bad boy who skips class, badmouths teachers, wears red and black, and raises his fist on a football field, forever paused in his defiance as Simple Minds’ “Don’t You (Forget About Me)” cranks up to goosebump-inducing effect. But not everyone that ends up in detention is a young criminal. (Sometimes they’re also a brain, athlete, basket case, or princess.) 

While Shermer High School’s detention system is known to generations, few students (including myself) seem to know how detention works in the Lovett Upper School, so I talked to Ms. Morris, one of the deans. 

First of all, let's start with the vocabulary. An infraction is a violation of a rule that needs to be reported. These are usually a result of repeated behavior that has not stopped even after a warning. A detention is a consequence for accumulating infractions.

The main goal of the discipline system is to make sure students can learn from their mistakes and to make sure a positive learning environment is being created for all students. “I think that it's not overly punitive,” Ms. Morris said. “We’re not trying to hand out detentions the first time a kid makes a mistake. It’s more just a way for teachers to highlight a behavior that needs to change.”

 

According to Ms. Morris, the administration has tried over the years, to make sure the system “fosters student learning and the other goals of the school like creating a sense of belonging” She added, “These rules serve as boundaries to make sure that can happen.”

I’ve had a quick taste of what it's like to cross those “boundaries” In 7th grade, I got detention for chewing gum. So one Friday after school, instead of walking to the pond to get picked up, I stopped at the MPR to serve my time. When I walked into the room, I sat down and got some stares since everyone in there was a regular. I stayed in that room for 30 minutes writing how I will never chew gum in class again (this clearly didn’t stick (no pun intended) because I’m chewing gum as I’m writing this). 

Since my detention story doesn't go through all the stages of the discipline system (thankfully), I will be using a made-up student named Jimmy to explain. 

Jimmy has been messing around on the weekend. He’s been going to games, parties, and doing pretty much everything except schoolwork. He comes into class on Monday morning late as usual and is constantly talking to his friends about his insane weekend while his teacher is teaching. This is the tenth time Jimmy has arrived late and disrupted his class in the past month, so he receives two infractions: one for being late and one for incomplete homework. Those infractions are only warnings and there are no consequences. 

A week later, Jimmy forgets that he has chapel, and wears his navy polo instead of his chapel shirt. When he walks into school, he is spotted by Mr. Melito who gives him his third infraction of the semester. Since this is his third infraction, he has a morning detention where he has to come in 30 minutes before advisory, sit in a dean's office, and “sit quietly to think.” 

Over the next three weeks, Jimmy gets two more infractions. His fourth infraction sends him back to the dean's office. However, his fifth infraction gets him a weekend detention. This usually requires the student to come into school over the weekend and help out with an event that is going on (like an open house).

Jimmy clearly has not learned his lesson, because he gets a sixth infraction. Now he is required to go to the Discipline Council where he will have the opportunity to explain his side of the story, answer questions, or admit to what he's done.

Though this scenario is a “very unusual, extreme example,” according to Ms.Morris that's the process of detentions at Lovett. The question is, however, how much does this process help prevent future poor behavior from the student?

Ms. Morris said that she could not think of any instances where a student had gone to discipline council multiple times in one year, and when I asked Ms.Morris if she thought that the system is helping students and preventing students from making the same mistakes, she laughed and said she hoped so or she would “need to reexamine” it. 

When I asked if Ms. Morris, a former Lovett student, had had any detentions, she shook her head and laughed. “No, I never got any detentions…” she told me. “... but my husband, who went to school with me here, definitely spent some time in the principal's office.” 

Her husband's detentions seemed to have taught him a lesson. “Now he's a model citizen… his detention days are far behind him.” 

Now that you know the ropes of the Upper School’s detention system, you might be able to better avoid being a part of it. Of course, some of you might still think a Breakfast Club-type Saturday might actually be kind of interesting. But remember, just because John Bender got to kiss the girl at the end of detention doesn't mean you’ll get to.

Original source can be found here. 

Source: Lovett School