By Sammy Roth
Under a new policy created by the Upper School Deans, students who receive six detentions over the course of one semester will receive a one-day suspension.
Dean Vanna Cairns said the new policy would help prevent students from cutting class, the most common reason for a detention. The deans decided that a new policy was needed as a result of statistics provided to them by Attendance Coordinator J. Gabriel Preciado. These statictics showed a 60 percent increase in detentions last year.
“Maybe it was too easy,” Cairns said, referring to one-hour detentions. “Any disciplinary action has to be unpleasant.”
The statistics also showed a decrease in tardies over the last three years, which Cairns credited to the other so-called “rule of six,” that having six tardies in one quarter results in a detention. With that in mind, Cairns said it was logical to implement a similar rule with regards to multiple detentions.
“It seems scary,” Preciado said, “but when you look at the numbers, it would only affect those who are really abusing the detention system.”
Twenty eight students received six or more detentions last year. Of this group, Cairns said there were about five who would have violated the new policy by accumulating six detentions in one semester.
Students will be warned by their deans when they have served five detentions.
“If we had this rule in place last year, I think those kids wouldnât have been such rampant detention attendees,” she said.
Preciado also hopes that the new suspension policy will curb detentions, especially among second semester seniors who have already been accepted to colleges, since colleges would be notified of a suspension.
“I really think that our school, compared to other schools, has a really lax policy on detention,” Preciado said. “This is really a step in the right direction.”
