Remember last year when everyone was saying how detention wasn’t that bad and you could do whatever you wanted there? Well, that’s changed.

The dean’s office made the decision to change the detention policy for the 2019-20 school year. Instead of leaving the activity to the discretion of the proctor, students must spend an hour copying the school discipline section of the student handbook.

This new policy has caught the attention of students, and some, like sophomore Dom Fallon, are up in arms about it. Dom said, “Writing the handbook is dumb, and I get nothing out of it.” Christian Ghoubrial, a senior, agrees with Dom. Christian served a detention recently, and said, “I was miserable. It was a horrendous experience, and it makes me never want to serve a detention again.”

The change was significant for a reason. Ms. Julie Hudec, Dean of Students, said, “There were too many kids in detention, and we wanted to make it more of a punishment.” Ms. Hudec also added that she thinks the change has been effective because fewer kids are getting detentions due to the stricter consequence. She finished by saying, “Who wants to sit there and write for an hour anyway?”

Fewer students may be getting detentions, but some are still upset. One of these is senior Sarah Eckman, who said, “It’s not a positive reinforcement of the rules.” She believes that the current punishment is not teaching a lesson or helping kids improve behavior in any way.

Previously, students in detention were supposed to do their homework or sit silently. Emily Alessia, another senior, thinks that students should be able to do their homework during detention. She said, “Copying the handbook doesn’t make sense, and it should go back to the way that it used to be, and kids should be able to do their homework.”

Junior Matt Fazio agrees with Emily, saying, “If kids do their homework during detention, it could help them to focus on their schoolwork instead of whatever it is that got them in detention.” Matt thinks that if students who violate the rules are underachieving academically, then working on homework would benefit them much more than just sitting there and copying the handbook.

While some students think another change in the policy is the answer, others believe the current punishment is having an impact. Senior Colton Levey thinks that the new detention policy is good for changing the way kids think of detention. He said, “I think it will make kids regret getting detention, because the punishment is stricter.”

With that being said, Colton still feels that no matter the changes that are made, kids are still going to continue to get detentions at the same rate.