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You are head teacher of a school.

(37 Posts)
biglouis Fri 13-Oct-23 15:39:56

School property has been defaced and only two students were known to have been present. There are no witnesses and no other evidence.

Each student blames the other.

Do you:-

#1 punish both

#2 punish neither

#3 continue to interrogate them until one cracks

#4 believe the one who sounds most convincing.

Callistemon21 Sat 14-Oct-23 09:34:24

I would seriously think it is time to let it go

Yes, I agree. Whilst I've never forgotten the injustice and pain of being punished for something I didn't do, nor the other incident, and it made me indignant, I can't say it changed my life.

Callistemon21 Sat 14-Oct-23 09:38:37

I still wonder what was the point of lines?
To instil in you what you must or must not do!

Whether it I worked on us at senior school, I don't know.
We wrote them down the page, firstly 100 x I, then 100 x must, 100 x not etc.

M0nica Sat 14-Oct-23 10:19:47

I thought the point of lines was to set you a punishment that was so mind bendingly boring you would do anything to make sure you never had to write them again.

Callistemon21 Sat 14-Oct-23 10:20:56

M0nica

I thought the point of lines was to set you a punishment that was so mind bendingly boring you would do anything to make sure you never had to write them again.

Some of us were slow learners 😁

Or had lines for a different misdemeanor!

Marydoll Sat 14-Oct-23 11:22:40

I used to have to monitor detention and we scrapped the lines for dissertation on what the miscreant had done wrong, the impact of their behaviour on others and how they were going to improve their conduct.

Believe me, that was more mind numbing than lines, I hated supervising it, because I had to read it, sign it and send it home to the parents to sign.

My time would have been spent better teaching.

biglouis Sat 14-Oct-23 11:41:38

These events happened in middle school so they did not affect my later career in secondary school. But I became a lot more worldly wise as a result of the incident, and more self assured. I got away with a lot.

At 10 I would not have said boo to a goose. At 11 I stood up to a bully and broke his nose. At 14 the maths teacher, who often picked on me in class, put his hand on my chest. I threatened him with exposure if he ever did picked on me again. I dont think he ever again addressed me or even looked at me in the classroom.

I had learned to stand up for myself.

Bella23 Sat 14-Oct-23 11:52:10

As a former teacher tell them what an inconvenience they had caused and together they were to clean up also that you would be informing their parents. There is always someone in the class who sees the injustice of it and comes and tells.

Grammaretto Sat 14-Oct-23 16:59:42

I was frightened by my HT.
If I committed a minor misdemeanor, I was told to stand outside her office where everyone saw me as they walked past. I had to wait for a whole break time and when she eventually saw me, there would be a short reprimand.
The punishment was for things like being late, forgetting something or once for drawing cartoons of the teachers and being caught!

Sorry Biglouis your experience sounds awful.

Ali08 Mon 16-Oct-23 06:37:34

Speak to their art teacher, to see if the damage looks like anything they've done in their class?!

nanna8 Mon 16-Oct-23 07:54:06

Get the two of them to clean it up. One would feel resentful of the other but too bad, that’s life.

Marydoll Mon 16-Oct-23 08:11:13

nanna8

Get the two of them to clean it up. One would feel resentful of the other but too bad, that’s life.

Absolutely not! That is unacceptable and it certainly wouldn't have happened in my school.