How Was Your Weekend? Well… I Had Detention.

Detention is a school’s classic punishment. It is where students are disciplined for their actions and behavior. It has been around since school started. The MacDuffie School has detention and it has always been on Wednesday afternoons, but a change is coming this year. 

For years, MacDuffie’s detention was on Wednesday from 1:45-3:45 p.m. (depending on how long you had to stay based on your punishment). Students have been told that if they break rules such as the dress code or are tardy it will result in detention. 

Dean of Students Trish Cox decided this year was the time to change things up. Talking with teachers and administrators over the summer, Cox spread the idea that detention should be on Saturday mornings this year. This idea was brought up last year but there were already a lot of changes happening around school. 

“I brought this idea up in our June faculty meeting,” Cox said, “We all agreed that this year we would give it a try and move it to Saturday mornings from 8:30-10:30.”  

Cox was getting the feeling that kids weren’t taking the afternoon detention as seriously as they should be. She wanted people to understand that detention is a place where you go when you break rules and face the consequences of your actions. 

“Another was that some students did not think detention was that big of a deal, because you’re up and moving and it’s a good time to do homework,” Cox said. “Some kids were making choices where they felt serving detention wasn’t a big deal, it wasn’t acting like a deterrent.”  

Sports were another problem that helped in the decision to change the day of detention. The afternoons here at the school are very busy with sports and practices taking place. The detentions used to interrupt that because students would have to miss games and practices to serve a detention. 

Senior Marcus Cole, who plays sports here at the school, was affected last year because of the Wednesday afternoon detentions. 

“Missing practice and games was not something that you want to do-you have to explain to the  coach and your teammates on why you can’t be there,” Cole said. “ It’s a bad feeling when you know that you’re hurting your team and letting people down because you haven’t followed the rules or just did something dumb.”  

Faculty and staff didn’t want students missing games and practice because of detention. Sports are important to many in the MacDuffie community. Students are often encouraged to get out there and play sports. It can build friendships and allow students to have fun and make memories. 

“Students had to miss detention sometimes because if they went to detention their team would have to forfeit because they wouldn’t have enough players,” Cox said. “We don’t want our students to miss games and the games have to be cancelled. That’s not fair to the other kids, so sports was a big part of changing detentions to Saturday instead of Wednesday afternoons.”  

Senior Zoe Wade lives on campus and is involved in acting and the theater after school. Wade understands why they moved detentions but also had some questions. 

“It’s easy for me to go downstairs and go to detention but what about students who live far away?” Wade said. “I’m glad I don’t have to miss any of my obligations after school anymore, though.” 

Cox, on behalf of the faculty and administrators said, “we don’t want our students to be in detention on Saturday, so by making the consequence even greater, our hope is that students will not do what they have done in the past.”