Portsmouth School Board debated the inclusion of a Saturday school day for students who have disciplinary problems during the regular school week. However this was met with mixed reactions from the public.
Tim Steele presented the new idea which would cost the school roughly $3,000 a year to reduce the number of in-house suspensions students are receiving due to poor behavior. During this time students would not be allowed to make up missed work, and would miss no weekly class time as they would if they were suspended. “I know this isn’t good news for parents,” Steele claims, “but I hope the threat of Saturday classes will make the students think twice before breaking the school rules.”
The need for a more strict detention came from students being caught smoking on the grounds of Portsmouth High School. This was not the only problem, but was one of the worst claims Steele.
Peggy Bacon, a parent who works 6 days a week disagreed with the proposal. “Why do we need a change? I know my son isn’t perfect, and I know he’ll probably wind up on the Saturday list at some point, but I’m not going to force him to go.” She said. “I just don’t think it’s going to make a any difference, and the parents are going to pay for it -- in higher taxes as well as in ruined Saturdays.”
Bob Farley, a town resident responded. “Parents can whine all they want about this, byt maybe it’s time parents in America were made to take a little responsibility for their kids.” He said. “Parents aren’t teaching their kids any discipline, so the kids have no respect for rules. Maybe if they have to miss a few Saturday morning cartoons they’ll start wising up.”
Lisa Gallagher, a senior at Portsmouth High School spoke last. “I don’t like this idea. I think it’s just being done to make like easier for the faculty, so they don’t have to deal with detentions during the week. Anyway, what if someone skips the session?”
Steele responded that the student would not be allowed to return to their regular classes until the Saturday detention was served.
The board then voted, and with a 5 -3 outcome with one member abstaining from the vote, Steele was asked to return to the next meeting with statistics regarding the number of in-school detentions given out this year.
Portsmouth High School
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