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The Trinity Voice

The student news site of Trinity Preparatory School

The Trinity Voice

The student news site of Trinity Preparatory School

The Trinity Voice

Detention Demands Attention

Detention+Demands+Attention

As the doldrums of boredom rolled on, I sat obediently in Mrs. Burmeister’s room. With a genuine smile, Mrs. Burmeister told me to think about what I had done and nothing else. Initially, I did.
However, it turns out that forgetting to sign-in to school does not provide much to ponder upon. Since I was not permitted to do anything else, my absolute inability to do anything productive was my punishment. I just sat there.
Did I learn anything? No. Well, actually, I became quite proficient at twiddling my thumbs. Yet, I don’t feel like achieving success in this silly activity was the administration’s intention.
However, a week later, I sat down and started writing this article. In a way, detention did provoke me to think. Yet, I didn’t think about my misdeeds, but how much I disliked detention.
Naturally, no rational person enjoys detention. It’s not a productive after school activity. Nonetheless, is it the best way to enforce discipline?
Let me be clear, the administration does a fine job of keeping our students on the right track. Upper School Dean David Langdon and Middle School Dean Trevor Berryhill oversee a school where discipline infractions are and always have been minimal.
“My goal as Dean is to foster an environment where students can be successful in the workforce and life,” Langdon said.
Nonetheless, despite the commendable efforts of the administration, the student body regularly breaks our discipline policies with paltry infractions. Customarily, individuals get to school tardy, dress against guidelines and skip detentions.
Frankly, these minor offenses are not an immense issue. Yet, these are solvable issues.
As a school, we have two options. First, we can accept this trend and acknowledge the reality that we can’t stop the disregard of our policies. Second, we can attempt to find a solution to this seemingly “unsolvable” situation riddled with these minor offenses.
Since I am unrealistic, I prefer to address the latter option. I imagine a school where any infractions of school policy are not viable.
To forge this view, it is necessary to analyze our current method.
“The way our discipline system functions is pretty simple. If you do something bad, we will take away your time,” Langdon said.
Basically, Langdon is promoting the system of detention. Naturally, this is the administration’s chief deterrent against committing an infraction. Theoretically, this approach should work. However, the realm of theory is different from that of fact.
Reflecting on this reality, the techniques to make our student’s behave appropriately can not be considered a complete success. Unequivocally, the amount of people who are in detention appears to be always high. For example, the last time I was in detention there was about twelve other “offenders”. In the last couple years, this number is fairly consistent.
Precalculus teacher Lynn Burmeister, who runs after school detention, agrees with the reality that the number of students in detention does not change much.
“ The number of people in detention is almost always around the same,” Burmeister said.
Logically, if the number of individuals in detention is consistent, then the deterrent is ineffective.
Even though we have the facade of having an advanced discipline system, it could be improved. If you do something wrong, you go to detention. If you do something very wrong, most of the time you will go to see the administration. Plain. Simple. Basic.
However, even though simplicity is good most of the time, it does not hold a place in the discipline of students. Ceaselessly, we are in an unvarying cycle of “crime” and “punishment”. I advocate for reform.
Commonly, the biggest dilemma in our school is the disregard of the dress code. Truly, this is not a widespread violation, but rather the same people breaking it over and over again. In its usual philosophy, the school stresses the importance of this etiquette. AP World History teacher William Milsten contends why the dress code matters.
“ People will judge you by what you wear,” Milsten said.
Milsten is right. Still, these recurring offenders don’t care about this social consequence. Also, these students reflect their callousness through their lack of regard for our tardiness policy. Attendance Coordinator Laurel Schmidt firmly believes in the values to getting to school on time.
“Being on time is important, period. It shows that a person is organized and on top of things, can be counted on, values the people and organization involved and ultimately values him or herself,” Schmidt said.
The usual crowd will not obey. Traditional argumentation will connect this to not caring.
However, I think that the root of this dilemma is much more complicated. Because our school operates in many ways as a bubble, we are often untouchable from the pain and affliction of the world around us. Thus, many of us do not see the tangible blessings that surround us.
Just being at this school is a blessing. Believe it or not, having a dress code is a blessing. Even having to deal with proper punishment can be perceived as a blessing. We are “burdened” with all these “problems” because people care about us. Perhaps, if we begin to see how minimal our problems actually are, then maybe we have that distinct possibility to improve our society.
When you sit in detention, you are not helping anybody. Arguably, you are not even helping yourself since most people don’t think about their infractions.
Instead of putting perpetrators in boring detentions, why shouldn’t they serve the community? Even though this might seem logical, Chaplin Kenneth Vinal stated that we have never really tried this approach.
“ To my knowledge, people who violate our policies have never been ordered to do community service,” Vinal said.
By reflecting on this concept, we see that repeated offenders could begin to realize how lucky they are to be in this school.
“ If we sent some of these kids to an inner-city soup kitchen, I think they would start acting differently,” Langdon said.
Of course, there is a counterargument to this view. Many believe that if community service was mandatory for those who break our rules, then that would reduce the value of the service. In defense of this view, the concept is that it makes community service seem like a punishment.
Yet, this perception is grounded on a false interpretation of what discipline is suppose to be. The proponents of this view are stuck in a cycle of crime and punishment. However, discipline is much more than that.
By forcing offenders to help our community, they wouldn’t be penalized. No, in fact, we would be allowing them to have a wider realization of the world around them. That’s what discipline should be.
Even if some might associate community service with punishment, the argument does not hold. If we are effectively helping people through rehabilitation, then the idea that it might somehow “taint” our relationship with service is irrelevant.
We need to do whatever we can to sustain the greater good. To me, the greater good is making the best discipline system possible.
Even in the city of Orlando, you do not have to walk very far to realize that there are families that don’t even have the security of shelter, clothing, or food. As discipline “offenders” help these people, they will learn to count their blessings. That’s the proper recipe for a better Trinity.
By making ourselves a better society, I believe that these “minimal” problems can be eliminated. To be completely honest, the administration will probably not ditch the detention system. However, at least, I hope that our administrators will consider that there could be more to discipline than a desk and a clock on the wall.

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