Central Hoping Detention Changes Help Improve Behavior

By Adam Henrickson

Norma keeps watch at the desk. Norma and her fellow security guards have noticed students are not so eager to earn detention this year. File photo by Rachel Laubach — Norma and her fellow security guards have noticed students are not so eager to earn detention this year. File photo by Rachel Laubach

Central High School’s detention policy may become more effective this year after the school decided to move it to after school. Detention used to be held during class; instead of going to class you would go to detention. Similar to in school suspension (ISS) this proved to be ineffective as some kids would rather have been in detention than in class. Moving detention to after school makes students a little more mindful of their actions. “Kids don’t want to stay after school. Most of them have jobs and other stuff to do after school and they can’t afford to spend it here,” said Al, one of the security guards at Central.

Detention can be given out for many reasons, one of which includes needing too many one-day IDs. If a student is scheduled for detention and decides not to go, he or she will be sent the next day and walked down by a security guard. From there a skipped detention can get a lot more serious, eventually leading to ISS and maybe even out of school detention (OSS).