Danielle Burger–Executive Editor
Saturday detention: it’s clearly not like “The Breakfast Club.”
Teenagers fill the room on this Saturday; you’d think that there would be endless chattering and giggling. Not the case. Perhaps no one talks because it’s very early, 8 AM to be exact, and these high school students are snoozing away. That’s not the case either. Each student is wide awake, working away.
Students don’t dance around to music and attempt to break out. No sleeping, no talking, no hall privileges, no tardiness- Saturday school is serious business.
“The kids usually study and are quiet, and follow the rules,” said Saturday detention monitor Craig Hoyt.
When students cut class, leave school ground, or miss after school detentions, administrators assign them to the fate of dragging themselves out of bed on a weekend. Habitual offenders may find themselves subject to harsher consequences.
“We do what’s best and most fair for the kids and everyone else,” said assistant principal Fred Amico.
Not all schools offer detention on Saturday. For example, James Madison High School students will never find themselves waking up early for a Saturday session of school. Call it unfair, call it ridiculous but Madison simply doesn’t “have enough people to man it on the weekend,” said Madison’s secretary to the assistant principal, Sydneia Murphy.
In many other high schools, the administration is able to provide Saturday school. “It is a standard measure available to all schools and proves to be a productive time for academics and a penalty that students tend to avoid after one session,” said Saturday detention monitor Christopher Bass.
Monitors subject students to very clear rules during this weekend wake-up call. “If they break one of the rules, usually sleeping or talking, they are reminded that if they continue they will be assigned another Saturday Detention the next session,” said Mr. Bass.
When students land themselves in detention, they often “regret it, because four hours of detention is murder,” senior Sam Savage said.
So there’s no use in crossing your fingers to hope that the administration will get rid of Saturday school. The only way to avoid Saturday detention is to, well, avoid getting in trouble.