Parents Speak Out on School Punishments

More than 25 parents packed a room at Meadows Elementary School where some aired their frustration with a disciplinary policy they say is too harsh. At a normally quiet Parent Teacher Students Association meeting Monday night, some mothers and fathers spoke of their objections to the school’s blue and white slip and “no daylight” policies. Students at Meadows receive blue slips for behavioral infractions and are given white slips for not being prepared for class, not having homework completed, forgetting homework at home and being disorganized. Under the school’s “no daylight” policy, sixth-graders who receive three blue slips in a week are kept from going out for recess on Fridays and are required to keep their heads down on their desk during the break. “If a child gets one white slip on Friday, after they have been good all week, they lose Friday Free Time,” 40 minutes of free play usually outdoors, said parent Celia Hallquist in an interview Tuesday. She spoke at the PTSA meeting and complained that teachers blur the distinction between the white assignment slips and the blue behavior slips.

 

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