Students voice opinions on detention times

Junior Emma Pettit has had a handful of detentions this school year. With more than 30 detentions needed to be served, Pettit has had trouble finding the time to complete them all. “Usually I get assigned detentions for being late to class, which I think is unfair,” she said. 

Pettit said she typically serves the detentions after school when she has time. “I still have like 15 more to do, and I’ve been coming in whenever I can since the start of the semester,” she said. 

Pettit said she would be happy if there was an option to see the number of detentions she has on PowerSchool. “I think the length of detentions is reasonable, but I wish there were more options to serve them,” Pettit said. Although she said she thinks students should be able to come in during power hour or during certain study halls, she said that no one would come in during the weekends. 

Associate Principal Lindsay Spears said serving detentions outside of school hours generally depends on their reasoning of being unable to serve before or after school. “Power hour detentions, at this point, are reserved for students who don’t have the transportation to get to and from school beyond bus schedules,” she said. 

Offering detention options on Saturdays would be beneficial for students that want to walk across the stage by the end of the school year. “It’s something that we can always look into, but what we would struggle with finding teachers to supervise on weekends,” Spears said. Teachers who supervise detentions after school hours do get paid from 3-3:50. However, the school may find it difficult to additionally pay teachers. 

Monday mornings are also great times to come in and serve detentions. “If you get here at 7, you can serve five detentions by the time first period starts. That’s been a pretty popular option for kids too,” she said. 

After spring break, roughly 15 students come in to serve detention after school. Spears said more students are motivated to get their detentions completed due to graduation and senior prom. 

Spears said the staff would need to figure out if students would be willing to come in on weekends before they took action on determining times. “I would also want to ask around different districts and see what is going well with their detention times and sort of weighing the pros and cons,” she said. 

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