By Kristie Hoang, News Editor
Homecoming is just around the corner, and instead of planning the perfect night, many students are rushing to clear last-minute detentions.
It is common for many students to try to clear multiple detentions days before homecoming tickets are sold. While this is an annual occurrence, there is confusion surrounding how a detention can officially be served.
Some teachers are known for quickly clearing detentions without any work. However, this practice has gone into abuse. Many teachers have stopped clearing detentions for students. Now, students are going to teachers that their friends might have, hoping to clear a detention.
“Too many students come back to me and just want to sit, and that ain’t right,” said one teacher.
Although the Parent and Student Handbook lists how a student can receive a detention, it does not state how a detention can be cleared.
According to Principal Chris Herzfeld, a detention is 30 minutes of sustained school work or reading. A Campus Beautification is 15 minutes of physical work to clean something on campus. Any staff or teacher clearing a detention or campus beautification must specifically note what the student did, for how long and the date.
Currently, this is the only authorized rate for clearing detentions. Teachers and other staff cannot compromise or shorten these rates because the supervision office is required to maintain consistency over the way detentions are served.
“No, we don’t really want to keep kids from walking at graduation if they have 15 outstanding detentions, but we will extract every ounce of extra effort out of the students before we clear them,” said Herzfeld.
The disciplinary goal of serving detentions is to keep students from acquiring even more.
“The more they are bargained away at the last minute, the more likely students will not concern themselves with their accumulating debt,” said Herzfeld.
