The Pot Belly Stove

[Zach]

My school has a system of conduct cuts in each class (and the teacher doesnt have to tell you when he and or she assigns them, and they vary by class).. but for the AP/principal level, we have things called office referrals, in which at one point they were hand-written and are now written online.

[Mr. Rainman]

It was kinda simple at my school. Ten demerits, you had morning laps. Had to get up at 6 to do them. At 60 demerits, you had an in-school suspension. 100 demerits, and you were suspended indefinitely.

[Austin M.]

My school has a system of conduct cuts in each class (and the teacher doesnt have to tell you when he and or she assigns them, and they vary by class).. but for the AP/principal level, we have things called office referrals, in which at one point they were hand-written and are now written online.

I copied one of my office referrals, if I can retrieve it, I'll post it. 

[Eric]

During my high school days, demerits didn't even exist.  The only things that teachers computed were your grades, absences, and tardies.

Same with me.  You got a detention if you were habitually late to classes or had actual behavioral issues.  Nothing like what I've read here, such as using a black pen on "use a blue pen day."

Reading this thread is like living through a nightmare.  I can't imagine how insane some teachers and schools are for basically treating students like soldiers at boot camp with all these demerits.

[Austin M.]

EDIT: These are almost exactly it - takes me back to the unholy days of NES.

[Eric]

Good grief!  That looks like a tool of a teacher-Nazi.  "Annoying classmates"?!  I annoyed my classmates every single day simply by my presence on this planet.  "Lack of materials"?  My teachers honestly couldn't have cared less where you got your pens and paper from, so long as you had them by the time class began.  One of my neighbors in math class borrowed my spare calculator every single day throughout the year, and it would have been unthinkable for her to have gotten in trouble for not having her own.

These kinds of rules have gotten truly out of control.  If a student has a bad cold, for example, would he get a detention for being "inattentive," showing a "lack of cooperation," and "annoying other students" by potentially infecting them, too?  Would that result in three detentions?  Good heavens!

So, at this school, are students allowed to speak unless the teacher first barks an order to them to speak?  What about laughing?  I was notorious, from the 2nd grade through high school graduation, for laughing out loud, uncontrollably, and for no good reason.  I just couldn't contain myself when I started.  9 out of 10 times, people (students AND teachers) enjoyed the comic relief and helped me to calm down a little.  During that lone 1 out of 10, I was told to take a walk, get a drink of water, and come back when I'm a little calmer.  I never once got in trouble for it, even though it could be considered "annoying" and "disruptive."

I went to school from 1987 to 2000, and, back then, I guess teachers and students were allowed to be human beings, not concentration camp overseers and automatons.  We were allowed to speak our minds, engage each other (and teachers) in mature debate, have fun within the context of the class, and just be people.  Hugs were routinely and freely exchanged, be it student-student, student-teacher, or teacher-teacher.  When I was in elementary school (and early on in middle school, too), the exterior doors to the building were kept wide open when it was hot outside to provide some ventilation.  It wasn't until later that schools had to be turned into Fort Knox to keep pedophiles and kidnappers out.

[WeatherWitness]

I'm forgetting what grades some of you guys are in who are talking about demerits, but here's a run-down of my "disciplinary" experience.

In my elementary school (4th and 5th grades), we had what was called the "Oops" board, and it was very strict (i.e. don't forget your materials, don't disrupt class, etc). Three "oops" marks meant detention.

In middle school, we did have demerits and referrals. Demerit was the first action, and if you got so many demerits you would get a "referral," which by the way was a "referral" to the middle school principal. So many referrals would then equal an in-school suspension.

In my high school, we also had demerits, but we did not get written up for these little things like forgetting your materials or laughing in class. One big thing was that we had to wear IDs in high school (since it was public), and it was very easy to get written up for that since a lot of people refused to wear them. Demerits were also issued in "groups," meaning a student would hardly ever get just one demerit; often times, even if a student did just one thing wrong, he or she would get three demerits at a time. So many demerits would equal an in-school suspension, then you could get out-of-school suspension.

Paying a teacher $20 is ridiculous. However, at my high school, the cell phone/electronic device policy was very strict. If you were caught using any form of electronic device in class, it would be confiscated and you would have to pay $15 to get it back. That $15 was supposed to go to the office, but there's no way to know for sure that the money didn't just go into the teacher's pocket.

[toxictwister00]

I'm forgetting what grades some of you guys are in who are talking about demerits, but here's a run-down of my "disciplinary" experience.

In my elementary school (4th and 5th grades), we had what was called the "Oops" board, and it was very strict (i.e. don't forget your materials, don't disrupt class, etc). Three "oops" marks meant detention.

In middle school, we did have demerits and referrals. Demerit was the first action, and if you got so many demerits you would get a "referral," which by the way was a "referral" to the middle school principal. So many referrals would then equal an in-school suspension.

In my high school, we also had demerits, but we did not get written up for these little things like forgetting your materials or laughing in class. One big thing was that we had to wear IDs in high school (since it was public), and it was very easy to get written up for that since a lot of people refused to wear them. Demerits were also issued in "groups," meaning a student would hardly ever get just one demerit; often times, even if a student did just one thing wrong, he or she would get three demerits at a time. So many demerits would equal an in-school suspension, then you could get out-of-school suspension.

Paying a teacher $20 is ridiculous. However, at my high school, the cell phone/electronic device policy was very strict. If you were caught using any form of electronic device in class, it would be confiscated and you would have to pay $15 to get it back. That $15 was supposed to go to the office, but there's no way to know for sure that the money didn't just go into the teacher's pocket.

It was like this when I was in middle/high school also. I guess what you guys call Demerits, we called them Deficiency Notices. You could get these notices for any reasons from continuously sleeping in class to failing/or on the verge of failing said class, to excessive cursing (sometimes you just got written up or a phone call depending on the teacher) to having missing assignments whether it was not turning in homework or finishing classwork. As far as academics when it came to these notices, going by the student handbook they issued us at the beginning of the school year, the teacher is required to inform you if you're failing or borderline failing their class in advance by issuing the notice so you can have time  to talk with that teacher and make up any assignments or do extra credit assignments to pull your grade up to at least a passing grade 70.

By law if they didn't issue you one and you failed the class you can report that teacher and they would be written up. That crazy stuff about annoying students or laughing out loud didn't necessarily get you in trouble, at worse you may have gotten a phone call home or after school detention again this depended on the teacher, but if it did become too disruptive to the entire class, you were more likely to kicked out of the classroom and sent to someone else's classroom to finish your classwork for the remainder of the class period.
Tardiness was a separate and somewhat complicated issue in high school to say the least.

[Eric]

My elementary school had no such thing as detention.  (It actually started the year after I left.)  The most common punishment was to stand in the corner of the classroom or, if during recess, outside at the corner of the building.  I don't know what the more severe punishments were, since I never got sent to the principal's office to find out.

In middle school, after-school detention was held only twice a week, on Tuesdays and Thursdays, since the after-school busses only ran those two days.

Wouldn't it be illegal to PAY any amount of money to the teacher as "punishment"?  I can see gross abuse of that system.  More to the point, unless the kids are 16 or so, it's really the PARENT'S money that is being paid.  And what right does the school have to hold the child's cell phone, paid for likely by the parent, hostage until money, again, most likely the parent's, is handed over to recover it?  How is that not theft?  Schools can ban cell phones and hold them until the end of the day or until a parent comes to retrieve it, but how is it even REMOTELY LEGAL for a school to hold a cell phone until the parent pays $15 to get it back?!  If I were the parent, I'd say, "I understand your rule about cell phones and I'll make sure my child doesn't bring it to school again, but unless you return my property to me right now I'm going to call the police and file a charge of theft."

[WeatherWitness]

Tardiness was a separate and somewhat complicated issue in high school to say the least.

Speaking of tardies, have any of you heard of (or have) the "Tardy Eliminator System" or "Tardy Sweep?" This is a fairly new thing, overall. My high school implemented it in the spring semester of this year. It's basically just another way to crack down on tardies and reduce them. What happens is that the teachers lock their doors once the tardy bell rings, and if a student is late to class, he or she has to go to a station, get the ID scanned, and then walk back to class with a pass. To get into the classroom, the student must display this pass in the window of the door. With two tardies, a student is let off with a warning. More tardies mean more severe punishments, the worst not being executed but by having three days of ISS. If any of you have this system implemented at your school or have heard of it, I'd be interested to hear your comments about it. I can see both its advantages and disadvantages.

[Austin M.]

Schools can ban cell phones and hold them until the end of the day or until a parent comes to retrieve it, but how is it even REMOTELY LEGAL for a school to hold a cell phone until the parent pays $15 to get it back?!  If I were the parent, I'd say, "I understand your rule about cell phones and I'll make sure my child doesn't bring it to school again, but unless you return my property to me right now I'm going to call the police and file a charge of theft."

My mom has tried that and the school threatened her with legal action. How or why? I don't know. All I do know is that we still were ransomed, for me checking a TORNADO WARNING on my phone. It's bull in my eyes.

[toxictwister00]

Tardiness was a separate and somewhat complicated issue in high school to say the least.

Speaking of tardies, have any of you heard of (or have) the "Tardy Eliminator System" or "Tardy Sweep?" This is a fairly new thing, overall. My high school implemented it in the spring semester of this year. It's basically just another way to crack down on tardies and reduce them. What happens is that the teachers lock their doors once the tardy bell rings, and if a student is late to class, he or she has to go to a station, get the ID scanned, and then walk back to class with a pass. To get into the classroom, the student must display this pass in the window of the door. With two tardies, a student is let off with a warning. More tardies mean more severe punishments, the worst not being executed but by having three days of ISS. If any of you have this system implemented at your school or have heard of it, I'd be interested to hear your comments about it. I can see both its advantages and disadvantages.

Yeah, we had that when I was in high school, but the first time if you were caught, you got administrative detention which is stupid to me, but if you were caught more than once and given a tardy slip during a tardy sweep you got in school suspension. Personally, the way it was done at my school I considered it ineffective and not full-proof because you still could be allowed to come into class late with or without the tardy slip and most times teachers didn't lock their doors, they just closed them after the tardy bell ranged. Getting tardy slips for being tardy coming to school made even less sense because it was only documented as a tardy if the teacher's class you were late going to marked it as a tardy on the school's online attendance system, they could have just marked you present (which some teachers did do) instead and it wouldn't go down as a tardy. Getting 3 tardy slips being late getting to school equaled up to 1 absence and 10 absences in one schoolyear equals up to a good chance you most likely will be kicked out of school and will probably sent to an alternative school, but I know there were Seniors who missed as much as a month of school and not only stayed, but graduated too.

[Austin M.]

My first trip to the office was for playing with rocks instead of PE in 1st grade. I got three days out of PE, much to my relief, but I had to come up with 40 things that could happen for throwing rocks. The secretary and I chatted much during my "detention," haha.

Your first office referral, demerits, detentions, suspensions? (I highly doubt anyone here has been expelled but if you have been you really shouldn't share  )

[Localonthe8s]

Tardiness was a separate and somewhat complicated issue in high school to say the least.

Speaking of tardies, have any of you heard of (or have) the "Tardy Eliminator System" or "Tardy Sweep?" This is a fairly new thing, overall. My high school implemented it in the spring semester of this year. It's basically just another way to crack down on tardies and reduce them. What happens is that the teachers lock their doors once the tardy bell rings, and if a student is late to class, he or she has to go to a station, get the ID scanned, and then walk back to class with a pass. To get into the classroom, the student must display this pass in the window of the door. With two tardies, a student is let off with a warning. More tardies mean more severe punishments, the worst not being executed but by having three days of ISS. If any of you have this system implemented at your school or have heard of it, I'd be interested to hear your comments about it. I can see both its advantages and disadvantages.

Yeah, we had that when I was in high school, but the first time if you were caught, you got administrative detention which is stupid to me, but if you were caught more than once and given a tardy slip during a tardy sweep you got in school suspension. Personally, the way it was done at my school I considered it ineffective and not full-proof because you still could be allowed to come into class late with or without the tardy slip and most times teachers didn't lock their doors, they just closed them after the tardy bell ranged. Getting tardy slips for being tardy coming to school made even less sense because it was only documented as a tardy if the teacher's class you were late going to marked it as a tardy on the school's online attendance system, they could have just marked you present (which some teachers did do) instead and it wouldn't go down as a tardy. Getting 3 tardy slips being late getting to school equaled up to 1 absence and 10 absences in one schoolyear equals up to a good chance you most likely will be kicked out of school and will probably sent to an alternative school, but I know there were Seniors who missed as much as a month of school and not only stayed, but graduated too.

I'm going to have to do a facepalm if they do execute people for being tardy...

Now I know this may sound uncomfortable for some, but execution is actually one method of punishment implemented in developing countries. In rural indian villages, it's not uncommon for students to get killed (let alone whipped) for violating rules such as refusal to listen to the teachers, failure to attend school or do work or extreme disrespect in the classroom. After all, they only have so many people living in the country..

[Charismatic Applesauce]

Your first office referral, demerits, detentions, suspensions? (I highly doubt anyone here has been expelled but if you have been you really shouldn't share  )

In the CPS, we don't have demerits. In fact, I never heard of them until all of you complained about them. At my school, if you're late to a class once, you're let off with a warning. However, if you're tardy to a class twice, you get a detention. Three times, you get a Saturday School. Four times or more, you get either an ISS (in-school suspension) or OSS (out-of-school). If you have an unexcused absence (aka cutting a class), the consequences are mostly the same except that you get a detention on the first one, with the rest of the consequences adjusted accordingly.

My first detention? Back in freshman year, I locked out the biology teacher. I just intended on closing the door to be funny, so I didn't know it was locked. The class thought it was funny though, and didn't think I deserved the detention.