Students in detention are encouraged self-expression

By Adrianne Johnson,
BlueDevilHUB.com Staff–

Despite popular belief, students in detention and in-house suspension are allowed to do school work and are even encouraged to express themselves.

The purposes of detention, assigned by teachers usually as a consequence for misbehavior and tardies, is to remediate students’ behavior, according to Elizabeth Arroyo, Alternative Class Placement (ACP) room supervisor.

In-house suspension is assigned to students who are not considered safe to have in contact with other students, but whose misbehavior does not fit the consequence of suspension–for instance, fighting and truancy.

In-house “suspendees” spend the school day in the ACP room; students serving detention spend lunches there.

In both cases, students are allowed to do homework.

“The day before a student has in-house suspension, I’ll email teachers,” Arroyo said. “Some teachers are good about sending stuff over, some are not.”

If students need outside resources not available in the ACP, they are able to go to the library or check out Chromebooks.

Sometimes, teachers do not send work over, or students finish their work before the day is over.

In this case, Arroyo has books available for students to read. Students can also nap, eat or make art collages from magazines.

“It helps them to develop their identities,” Arroyo said.

Once the collages are finished, Arroyo asks students to explain the importance of their collage, and pastes them to the walls of the ACP room.