Detention for a Kindergartener - Is this common practice in NoVA? (home, school district)

[theBIGstep]

Heard that my neighbor's daughter, who is five, got detention in public school. She assured me she did not hurt or hit another child, or act crazy or anything like that. Her child became confused by what they were instructed to do (almost all of the class left with assist for encore class and three kids including her child were left with teacher in classroom). Her child, as she explains, was told to wait and her child did for a bit but then didn't see the teacher or other two classmates in the room and left the room to join the rest of the class who was with the assistant teacher allready. Walking alone in the hall to the special class, my neighbors daughter was found by two teachers who then went to her teacher and alerted her that one of her students had left the classroom unaccompanied . The parents got a call home saying their daughter left the room but were not the details (they're child told them later) (they thought she literally just got up and left the room) No one told my neighbor that a detention would be assigned. In fact, my neighbor didn't even know her child had gotten detention until their child told them over the break that they didn't eat lunch with all her friends. She asked me if a school district can do such and it got me thinking.....

Is it common in Northern VA for a school district to give a Kindergarten detention? Wouldn't there be some type of communication about this before it was assigned?

And, if the parents were not notified or emailed or anything- can the school admin justify the non-notification?

It seems ridiculous to me that detention for a 5 year old would really do anything positive for the child. I'm from northeast where the teacher is responsible for the class and every child is in line's eye view. Maybe I am just old fashion - but is this how NoVA public schools work? Also too if you were in the office you better believe your parents was getting a call and a conference would be scheduled.

My neighbor scheduled a meeting after it took several calls to get one, she also said that when she spoke to one of the administrative people they didn't seem to have any idea of why she was so upset and laughed that they the meeting was not going to happen because they were just so busy.

Its a little scary if the administration in public school acts this way.

Thanks for any comments. My neighbor's child teacher is a first-year teacher. Not sure if that has something to do with this.

[spencgr]

Your only source for the facts of this incident is a five year old, is that correct?

[HokieFan]

I cannot speak on behalf of FFX County as I work for an independent school.

At our school:
1.) A Kindergartener would not receive "dentention" for this. The teacher would talk to the student about why they shouldn't wander around without adult supervision or leave a classroom without permission.
2.) Communication should be sent by the end of the school day. In this instance, I would say that it needs not be communicated prior to the punishment but definitely by the end of the school day.
3.) Admin cannot justify that it wasn't communicated - it should have been.

Has Mom talked to the teacher? That should be the first step. And only going to Admin if there is further concern.

[theBIGstep]

spencgr - according to neighbor when she emailed the teacher as a first step to find out if indeed she had eaten lunch in office. The teacher than wrote back that her child did have lunch detention and it was giving my the vice principle and that the VP was suppose to contact her and didn't.

My neighbor has tried to get a meeting to discuss and finally did - but when she spoke with VP the VP was very confused as to why my neigbor was so concerned about not being told. She has a meeting scheduled with VP and teacher.

Hope this helps clear up a bit.

[JD984]

Originally Posted by theBIGstep

spencgr - according to neighbor when she emailed the teacher as a first step to find out if indeed she had eaten lunch in office. The teacher than wrote back that her child did have lunch detention and it was giving my the vice principle and that the VP was suppose to contact her and didn't.

My neighbor has tried to get a meeting to discuss and finally did - but when she spoke with VP the VP was very confused as to why my neigbor was so concerned about not being told. She has a meeting scheduled with VP and teacher.

Hope this helps clear up a bit.

I hate the idea of telling a kid in kindergarten that he or she has "detention," if that happened. Great way to make a kid hate school. If the kid needs extra time with the teacher to discuss the importance of following directions, that could be accomplished without sticking a punitive label on it.

[South Jersey Styx]

Something sounds fishy in the story although I do not know exactly what it is.

When I first read your post, I thought about the safety and welfare of the child and why the child was left unattended/wandering around at all.

Please pass to your friend:
Call a meeting with the Principal and find out what happened. Do not get defenseive. However, do not rely solely on what one person says or what the (confused) 5-year was saying. See if she can figure out what actually happened and more importantly, how this situation will be handled in the future.

And no, I do not agree with detention for the child. The student is supposed to know what they did or did not do to receive the detention. Sounds like that little 5-year old doesn't know what was happening.

Good luck.

[car54]

I used to do an Alternative Learning Center bus run for elementary kids that had been expelled from their base school. Several of them were kindergartners.

I used to wonder how in the world could a 5 year old be so bad as to be expelled from school. I soon found out...

[jagmeister71]

Not sure why this warrants a discussion with anyone in the administration. If the neighbor disagrees with the way their child was disciplined then discuss it with the teacher in a constructive and civil manner. IMO, nothing wrong with some alone-time with the teacher if it affords the teacher an opportunity to teach a child what is right, wrong, or proper procedure.

As the spouse of a FCPS kindergarten teacher, I can tell you kids get put in "detention" all the time for various reasons. Most prominent is recess "detention." If the principal was called for every one of these incidents, I honestly don't think he/she would have the time to do anything else.

[slim04]

Detention in Kindergarten is not like detention in 7th grade. It is basically a time out. Each child probably gets several of these, some less, some more a year. There are lots of behavior issues for students getting to know each other and adjusting to the school setting. It is a very minor punishment and the behavior is usually corrected. So it is a learning point and then you move on. It may be something a teacher talks about in a parent teacher conference, but it just isn't something they want to deal with parents on a real time basis. Kids learn and they move on to the letter O. The kids don't obsess about it like their parents.

When the behavior is worse or not corrected, then they kick it to the principal or psychologist. The teacher has to teach the class, vs. stop everything to spend the time to deal with the issue one on one. The principal or psychologist then decides whether parents get involved.

So calling parents, isn't step 1, its more like step 3 when there are serious issues like an injured child (or your child caused on injury to another). It is a more serious punishment (when I went to school it usually resulted in spanking from my dad).

I don't know if the being in the hallway warranted a detention, but I am sure all involved except the parents just considered it no big deal and wanted to move on.

When my daughter was in K, she was obsessed with this stupid pink square on the floor and literally would shove any student who dared to sit there for story time. She apparently got a lot of time outs for it and the teacher told me at the parent teacher conference though she stopped doing it a while back. When I told my daughter what the teacher told me and to knock off doing that kind of stuff, she cried and cried. Being told she got in trouble in school was a worse punishment to her than the so called detentions.

[Oldhag1]

Originally Posted by theBIGstep

Her child became confused by what they were instructed to do (almost all of the class left with assist for encore class and three kids including her child were left with teacher in classroom). Her child, as she explains, was told to wait and her child did for a bit but then didn't see the teacher or other two classmates in the room and left the room to join the rest of the class who was with the assistant teacher allready. Walking alone in the hall to the special class, my neighbors daughter was found by two teachers who...

This started with the child being left behind the rest of the class during the teacher's planning period. My guess, based on over 20 years of teaching, is that the child was already in trouble for something she did in class and the teacher was going to talk to her or behind so much on classwork that the teacher needed to work one-on-one with her. The teacher probably stepped out of the class (to do something like use the bathroom as this is one of her rare chances to do so) and the child took that opportunity to join the other kids at PE or art or whatever. In other words, the child left to avoid a remedial action. It is now past time to talk to the child, she needs to get the message that she has to do what is required of her. Not getting to eat lunch with her classmates sends a powerful message and has no impact on her academics nor does it inconvenience the parents. As someone else mentioned, this "detention" is far different than what a middle school or high school student gets.